Fresh Beginnings
by ToxicManipulator
Summary: New Chapter out. Nr.3/ Alias: Kitsune. Description:S-rank shinobi of the hidden leaf. Perfect tool of Konoha... or is he? Humorous fic about Naruto finding himself and his emotions again. I've always wanted to base Naruto somewhat off Itachi and Sai.
1. Chapter 1

_**Prologue**_

Among all the hidden villages in the elemental countries, Konoha usually ranked at the top in terms of military power. Their secret? Bonds created through teamwork and comradery.

Emotions, powerful assets or liabilities that they were, were considered a taboo amongst ninja of all the villages. The exception being Konoha. Well... the ranked ninjas anyway, meaning gen-, chuu- and jou- nin.

Although Konoha had suffered many wars, it always came out on top as the victor. In fact, several years ago during the chuunin exams, a small scale war was launched, led by none other than Orochimaru of the sannin. Though Konoha lost many shinobi as well as their Leader, the Sandaime Hokage, they still came out on top.

Shortly after their leader was lost, they sought out a new powerful shinobi to lead their village. This came in the form of none other than Senju Tsunade of the sannin, followed by her apprentice Shizune and her adoptive daughter Haku. Shizune had accompanied Tsunade when she initially left the village thirteen years prior, and they had come across Haku in a small homophobic village playing the role of a small boy, hoping to survive.

Now, three years later, the village was back to its norm, and all important matters had been taken care of... well, most anyway.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

"Shizune!"

Said girl winced when she entered the office of the hokage, carrying a heavy stack of files. While she appeared petite from her appearance, she actually had wiry muscles hidden underneath her clothing from years of hard work being apprenticed under Tsunade. Her better than average curves aside, she had black raven styled hair with warm ebony colored eyes. She wore a light blue kimono with a black obi.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama?", she asked with a sigh looking at her superior. Tsunade though aged, looked quite young and beautiful, no thanks to a powerful genjutsu she had created. She had average length blonde hair, split into two ponytails at the back. Her eyes were a light shade of chocolate brown. The most notable of her appearance however, was her unreal bust size. She preferred wearing her usual green attire, consisting of green sleeved top and pants, instead of the Hokage uniform.

At the moment they were busy sorting out the last of the work, caused by the invasion and Tsunade having to take office. Currently, all that was left was sorting through all the files concerning ANBU, the more secretive part of Konoha's shinobi forces.

"Do you have those files yet? And stop adding that honorific will you?"

Following Tsunade's declaration a giggle was heard, coming from a younger girl sitting at a desk next to Tsunade's. She had long silk black hair, reaching a foot in length below her shoulders. She wore standard Kunoichi clothing in a light blue shade, mixed with black.

"Yeah, Shizu-neechan. Call her Okaa-san! No-one's going to hear you."

"I think she's just trying to show some decorum while working, Haku-chan.", replied the pink haired girl sitting next to Haku. Her eyes were a shade of light green, shining with intelligence. She wore a dark red top with a black skirt.

"I think your being too stuffy, Sakura-chan. You really should get out more, I think that nice boy Lee-san would make a good boyfriend for you, don't you think?"

"Haku!"

"Well?" Tsunade directed her question at Shizune, ignoring the two younger girls' playful banter.

With a sigh Shizune placed the large box of files on Tsunades desk. "This is the last box we need to sort through, then we're done."

Tsunade nodded and divided the files into equal stacks, one for each female in the office, and they all set back to work.

_Several hours later._

"Tsunade-sama?"

The blonde in question sighed wearily before looking up at her second apprentice. "Yes Sakura?"

"I've gone through my stack and the only anomaly I've found is this one guy whose been working for nine years now and hasn't taken a single day off yet."

Everyone in the office's eyes snapped to Sakura in wonder. Shizune being more vocal. "You're kidding? And he hasn't snapped and gone on a killing spree or something yet?"

Sakura shook her head in the negative. "No, his medical reports say he's fine mentally. Sort of."

Tsunade sweat dropped. _'Sort of?!' _ "Who did the tests?"

"They were conducted by Ibiki-san and Inoichi-san. I guess they'd have to be pretty accurate considering the work they usually do."

The blonde leader nodded absently. "What did you say his name was again?"

Sakura blinked and looked down at the paper. "Some guy called Uzumaki Naruto."

Everyone's head snapped to Tsunade when they saw her gasp and pale slightly.

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune questioned in concern. "Do you know him?"

Tsunade's eyes snapped to Shizune. "It doesn't matter." She turned back to Sakura. "Read me his entire file, now."

Sakura nodded shakily and started reading aloud.

"_**Name:**_ Uzumaki Naruto.

_**Code name:**_ Kitsune.

_**Age:**___Sixteen.

_**Career status:**_

Graduated from ninja academy and became gennin at age 7.

Entered chuunin exams and became a chuunin at age 8.

Joined the ANBU at age 9.

Became ANBU Captain at age 11.

After having spent 3 years as ANBU Captain, he was made the commander for the Black Ops ANBU program at age 14.

He's still currently the Black Ops Commander.

_**Mission history:**_

D-Ranks : 56

C-Ranks : 34

B-Ranks : 67

A-Ranks : 253

S-Ranks : 114

_**Skills:**_

Genjutsu : S-class. Shinobi has mastered ability to create genjutsu without use of hand seals.

Ninjutsu : Shinobi knows over 1000 ninjutsu. True class unknown.

Taijutsu : Mastery of Goken(Iron Fist). Mastery of Seppakuten(Pressure point fist). A-class.

Kenjutsu : Mastery of Kyoushunodo(Assassin's cut throat style). A-class.

Fuuinjutsu : Full Mastery, Konoha Standards. A-class.

Medjutsu : Average techniques covered. B-class.

_**Chakra Affinities:**_

Main Element : Fuuton(Wind), full mastery.

Main Element : Suiton(Water), full mastery.

Sub Element : Hyouton(Ice).

Report: Whether shinobi has mastered his sub element is still unknown. It should be noted his favored use of ninjutsu to finish missions A.S.A.P is by use of Hyouton techniques. Of course, the shinobi favours use of genjutsu before Hyouton to make missions even more efficient.

_**Health History:**_

Subject is very healthy, rarely gets sick and rarely faces life threatening conditions. It should be noted that the subject rarely visits hospital for check ups after missions, preferring to mend any damage done on his own.

Mind has been regularly checked once every six months by shinobis Morino Ibiki and Yamanaka Inouchi. Subject's mind is relatively healthy, and does not have any noted homicidal thoughts.

_**Known recorded Kills:**_ 2150 (possibly more, as shinobi may have edited reports submitted)

_**Notable features:**_ The shinobi has an abnormal addiction to Pocky. Watch carefully. Pocky addiction is a similar condition that S-rank criminal Uchiha Itachi suffered."

The more Sakura read the file, the more everyone listening gaped. Shizune, the first to regain control of her dazed state looked incredulously at Sakura. "You're kidding, you have to be! There's no way anyone that young could have achieved so much."

The pinkette shook her head shakily. "That's exactly what the report says. The people in filing office don't usually pull pranks, do they?" She asked hoping for a error, only to sigh when Shizune shook her head 'no'.

Everyone turned to Tsunade and noticed she was kneading her temples, a sign that someone was either going to die or going to be the victim of one of her painful punches. She let out a sigh and pushed a button on her desk. "Hello? Yes, I want you to call Jiraiya to my office. Tell him if he's not here within 15 minutes I'll close down all public hot springs. And after that, call Ibiki and tell him to send the ANBU Kitsune to my office, now."

_5 minutes later._

"Tsuuuuuuuuuuuuunade-hime! I'm here, I'm here, I'm here! Don't do it!", was heard, followed by a large man with white hair and red markings on his face bursting through the office door.

The white haird pervert had been busy 'researching' and thinking up brilliant ways to introduce a character based off that Anko girl he saw at the hotsprings, when he was interrupted by some ANBU punk. The threat he received indirectly from Tsunade made him bolt directly to the Hokage tower and office however.

"Jiraiya."

The white haired pervert looked up nervously. It was rare for Tsunade to speak in such a calm tone of voice. "H-hai?"

"Uzumaki Naruto" The white haired male gaped.

"W-what? He's alive? Where is he?"

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her throbbing temple. "He's been in ANBU for about eight years now. So I guess that's why one would assume he didn't exist anymore."

Jiraiya nodded shakily. _'Minato would kick my ass if he found out I wasn't here for his son. To think I thought the boy was dead all this time... Oh crap...'_

"Where is he now?", he asked, having regained his composure.

"He should be here soon, provided he's in Konoha right now. I asked to have Ibiki send him here, I'm hoping he knows since he is pretty much Naruto's shrink."

They were interrupted by a knock at the door followed by a cold indifferent voice. "Kitsune reporting, Hokage-sama. May I come in?"

Tsunade blinked. _'He's got manners at least. A big improvement from those brats, Minato and Kushina.'_

"Come in."

The door opened and a tall blonde muscular teenager entered the office. He wore standard issue ANBU gear and armour as well as the standard ANBU mask. His had the shape of a fox with long ears, the slits on the mask glowed an eery red. He wore a tight sleeveless black shirt, showing his muscular arms, as well as a spiral tattoo on his right arm, marking him as an ANBU. He wore black fingerless gloves with arm guards on his wrists for blocking strikes. An obsidian Katana was strapped to his back giving off no reflection at all. Around his waist, in place of a belt there was a rope, signifying him as a sealing master.

The masked blonde dropped into a one legged kneel in front of Tsunade's desk. "You requested my presence, Hokage-sama?", his cold indifferent voice questioned.

The sannin both shared a pained look before turning back to the blonde. The hokage cleared her throat and spoke, her tone all business. "I understand you've been in service to Konoha for almost nine years now, and you have yet to take a day off." At his nod she continued. "Mind explaining your absence of days taken off, Kitsune?"

The ANBU stood when she gestured for him to stand, and tilted his head to the side in confusion. "I'm not sure I understand, Hokage-sama." Tsunade's eyebrow twitched in agitation. Haku saw this and spoke, hoping to let her adoptive mother cool down. "She means, why haven't you had a vacation in all that time working?"

Again the ANBU tilted it's head to the side in confusion. "What does vacation mean? Is it some new classification of training regime? I'm afraid I haven't heard of any such new objective training yet."

Everyone in the office sweat dropped. Sakura decided to try and explain this time. "A vacation means to go on holiday, Kitsune-san. Do you understand?"

Much to everyone's agitation, the blonde tilted his head in confusion again. "Holiday? Is it a new flavor of pocky Pink-san? I'm sure I would have known though, I visit the pocky suppliers frequently, and I also read the 'Pocky Monthly' every month. Is it a S-class pocky, then?" The blonde ANBU nodded his head sagely. "Hai, it must be. That's the only reason I've not yet heard of this strange new pocky." Idly the blonde wondered if it was wise to skip learning the entire dictionary like some of his associates did. Eh, too late to care now.

The blonde ANBU looked up just in time to catch the pink haired girl's chakra laden punch aimed at his face. Everyone, with the exception of the ANBU, winced when they heard flesh hitting flesh and the sound of bones breaking following by a painful scream. "AAAhh!"

Everyone looked on with mouth's agape at the sight of Sakura falling to her knees, cradling her broken hand. The blonde ANBU looked on indifferently and shrugged. Not his problem, after all.

Several minutes later, Sakura was nursing a bruised and hurting hand, her broken bones having been healed by Tsunade. The blonde hokage in question sat back into her office chair and sighed. She then shot the blonde ANBU a glare. "Was that really necessary? And how did you do that anyway?"

From behind his mask, Naruto blinked in confusion. "Was what necessary? And how did I do what, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Was it necessary to goad Sakura into attacking you, and how did you hurt her like that? I know for a fact that her punch should have sent you flying. I taught her how to, as Jiraiya can attest to." The mentioned white haired pervert winced, remembering painful memories.

Naruto blinked owlishly. "I merely addressed Pink-san by her most notable characteristic as I do not know her name. And I rose up my hand and caught her fist. Was there anything else you wanted, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched at his casual dismissal. "Okay, look. As your Hokage, I'm discontinuing the Black Ops ANBU program. Who are all your teammate's?"

The blonde showed no visible reaction and spoke. "My subordinates are all the Captains of the other twenty ANBU squads, Hokage-sama. Shall I inform them of your order?"

Tsunade shook her head. "No, I'll notify them on my own after this. Now then, I'm also removing you from the ANBU altogether. Since you won't take some time off, I'll GIVE you some time off by taking away your heavy work schedule. I'm promoting you to Elite Jounin status." She turned to shizune, to see her already going to fetch an Elite Jounin vest.

"Since you're not part of ANBU anymore, you may remove your mask, keep it as a souvenir if you like, you will also no longer be using your code name. You're back to Uzumaki Naruto now. Any questions?"

The blonde still showed no visible reaction to his change of rank. "What does my new rank demand of me, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade didn't even bat an eyelash when she replied. "You will be allowed to take a maximum of one mission per week. Time spent on said mission excluded. You get your mission from the jounin lounge on the lists on the board. Just choose a mission, write your name next to it and meet at the place the mission file indicates on time so that you may receive your briefing. After you've finished the mission, the highest rank shinobi will give me a debriefing. I expect it to be both written, and oral. Understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama. I'll get to my first mission right awa-"

"Hold it!" The blonde looked up innocently and stopped his chakra from forming a shunhin. "Hai?"

"You will take off one week before you're allowed your first mission. Starting now." The blonde sighed, and nodded, his head hanging with disappointment.

"Cheer up! Look on the bright side, you get to go out and have fun in the sun!", Haku said cheerfully. Shizune nodded with a smile of her own. "Hai, just go out and relax a bit. Here's your Elite Jounin vest by the way."

The blonde nodded and slipped on his new vest and turned back to an irate Tsunade tapping her finger impatiently. "Well?"

Naruto blinked dazedly, not that they could see behind his mask. "Well what, Hokage-sama?"

"Off with it!" When the blonde tilted his head in confusion, Jiraiya sighed. "Your mask, gaki. You don't need it anymore, so take it off."

_'Ah!' _The blonde nodded, now comprehending and slowly reached up to take off his mask. His small audience watched with baited breath as his hand slowly moved to touch his mask. Just as he was about to pull it off he paused. "Uh, are you sure it's wise for me to do this in front of-"

"Take it off already, gaki!", Tsunade nearly yelled in frustration.

The blonde sighed, and removed the mask, his arm dropping to his side, revealing his face for the world to see. Everyone gasped, but for different reasons.

Jiraiya couldn't help but be amazed at the blonde's accurate resemblance to the late Yondaime-Hokage. _'The kid looks just like his father!'_

Tsunade smirked, wondering how the populace would take to having the Yondaime's legacy amongst them again. _'Will they riot, or faint? I wonder...'_

As for Shizune, Sakura and Haku... They had gasped because... quite frankly, the blonde was very handsome. His blonde spikey hair looking almost exactly like that of the Yondaime Hokage, the only difference being his shoulder length ponytail. His face was unblemished and unscarred, quite rare considering his profession. If one were to look close enough they would have to strain their eyes to see the faded whiskers on his cheeks.

Almost, as one, all three young girls blushed seeing the handsome blonde. The blonde casually ran has hand through his locks obscuring his eyes. He turned his cold calculating eyes to the blonde Hokage. "Will there be anything else, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade nodded her head, grinning nostalgically. "Hai. What are your living arrangements?"

The blonde ex-ANBU blinked at the odd question. "I live in the ANBU caves under a hole, Hokage-sama. Excellent for training the eyes for night missions." Tsunade's eyes twitched irately.

"Right. Since you're no longer ANBU, you don't live there anymore. Let me just take a look at those properties..." Tsunade scanned through several papers, before sighing, though unknown to all but Naruto, she had smirked slyly for a second before it disappeared. The blonde narrowed his eyes. _'What is she up to?'_

"Alright, since most properties don't have any vacancies you'll have to wait for several weeks for those new apartment complexes to be complete. I'm sure you've noticed the construction taking place in the old demolished Uchiha district. Therefore, you'll be staying with me until then. I have a guest room you can stay in."

Two of the three girl's eyes widened slightly.

"But Okaa-san!" "Tsunade-sama!"

"No buts." Tsunade said with a smug grin. "Just drop by the Hokage manor later today and I'll have your guest room ready, Naruto-kun"

The blonde nodded. "What am I to do until then, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade smiled cheerily. "Go out and have fun! I'm sure a teenager like yourself will waste no time finding a girlfriend or do whatever it is you teenagers do!"

The blonde nodded seriously, not actually considering Tsunade's words, and bowed. "By your leave, Hokage-sama." He turned around and left at her nod.

When he left the office Jiraiya finally smirked having already caught on to Tsunade. "Well, well... this should prove to be interesting. You mind if I come... 'visit', you more regularly, Tsunade-hime?"

The blonde Hokage's smirk turned predatory. "Of course, I wouldn't want you to miss this."

The white haired pervert grinned lecherously and turned to the stunned younger girls. "So, what do you think of your new guest, Haku-chan, Shizune-chan?"

Both girls snapped angry accusing glares to Tsunade. "Why did you do that?! I'm sure there's some vacancy somewhere?", Shizune asked irately. The blonde hokage smirked. "Oh, no need to worry. There really IS nowhere else he can go. You'll just have to adapt I'm afraid.", she said giving them a false sincere look.

Sakura, who had been silent until now, voiced a question that had also been bothering Tsunade and Jiraiya for quite a while now. "Is it normal for someone who has been in ANBU so long to take so well to being given a new position?"

Jiraiya blinked dazedly. "Yeah, you're right. I heard from Sarutobi-sensei that even Kakashi-kun, as apathetic as he is, whined for a good twenty minutes before he became a jounin."

Tsunade frowned worriedly. "You're right you know. His reaction, or lack thereof isn't normal."

Jiraiya nodded sagely. "Kakashi-kun blew up several small buildings in the town square out of spite right after he became jounin. I can't imagine what Naruto-kun would do."

After Jiraiya had said that, his and everyone else's eyes widened in fear. "Shit!", Tsunade muttered dazedly. She quickly marched off to the safe in her office and took out a crystal ball. She layed the crystal ball on her table and started scrying for the blonde enigma's location. Soon an image came to the ball and everyone found the blonde speaking to a familiar raven haired boy.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Naruto had just dazedly left the Hokage tower, and finished recovering all of his personal belongings into storage scrolls. Currently he was walking through the streets of Konoha looking for something to do. _'What is this 'fun' that Hokage-sama spoke of? Perhaps I should ask someone?'_

The blonde was brought out of his musings when he heard someone calling his name. "Naruto-sempai! Naruto-sempai!" The blonde looked up and saw a raven haired boy wearing skin tight black shirt, showing off his open belly. The blonde blinked once. "Sai-san?"

"Hai. What brings you out here, and without your mask Naruto-sempai?" The blonde in question shrugged. "Tsunade-sama promoted me for some really odd reason." The boy, now identified as Sai, tilted his head in confusion. "Odd? How so?" The blonde shrugged. "She said something about 'going on vacation', 'relaxing' and having 'fun'. I have no idea what these strange concepts mean. I was considering asking someone before you found me."

Sai nodded in comprehension. "Ah. Would you like me to explain to you Naruto-sempai?" Naruto nodded, happy that someone would finally explain this strange new concept to him. "Please do, Sai-san. Hokage-sama didn't deem me worthy enough to explain this oddity to."

The raven haired boy smiled what he thought was a smile, which turned out to be a creepy paedo-grin, causing several woman in the vicinity to shriek and run away in fear with their children clutched tightly in their arms. "Sakura-chan said that having fun is when a group of 'friends' get together for a social event to gain pleasure from each other's company. Or something like that."

Naruto's eyes widened in understanding. "Ah! I see. Kakashi-sempai once told me of this. He said another word for that is orgy. I didn't think I'd ever get to see one though."

Somewhere in the Hokage tower a group of people fell to the ground sweat dropping.

"Orgy?" Sai asked curiously. "Where did you hear that word?"

Naruto shrugged. "I saw the word in one of Kakashi-sempai's training manuals that he reads so much."

The raven haired boy blinked in surprise. "Those are training manuals?" he asked in awe. Sakura always threatened him and any other boys from reading those books.

Naruto nodded sagely. "Hai. From what I've seen of the contents. The books trains one how to properly behave in similar situations if you go on infiltration missions. Though the odd use of words still confuses me."

Sai nodded. "How so?"

The blonde shrugged. "For some reason the manuals insist on using the words 'member', 'meat pipe' and 'junior' instead of penis. It's really odd."

Sai gaped. "The manual mentions penises? How strange. The author of those manuals is Jiraiya-sama. I'd always thought he didn't have a penis, like many of the other male ninja in the ranks. I guess I may have been mistaken in my assumption."

The blonde nodded sagely. "It's like Kakashi sempai said to me and those other Hyuuga trainees in our old squad. 'Look underneath the underneath'. But... for some reason, they all passed out with nose bleeds. It might have been the heat of the hot springs we were in at the time."

"Well. Now that you have an understanding of the word 'fun', was there anything else you wanted to know?"

The blonde nodded. "Yes, actually. Most of the females whose path I've crossed have been giving me these odd looks. The pigmentation of their faces is really red. I think there might be a fever epidemic."

Sai frowned thoughtfully. "Perhaps we should ask one of them?"

Naruto nodded. "Good idea. Let's ask that blonde one over there?"

Sai nodded and followed. "Excuse us miss, but we couldn't help noticing that most of the females we encounter seems feverish. Could you perhaps explain to us why this is so?"

Naruto grunted in agreement. The blonde girl blushed under Naruto's gaze. "Well, it's because 'he'", she pointed at Naruto. "Is really, really hot."

The blonde in question blinked in confusion. "I am not hot. The temperature is rather pleasant actually. I'd prefer it much colder though."

The girl giggled. "No, I meant that you're sexy!"

Naruto turned to Sai. "What does this sexy mean? Is it some kind of edible fruit?"

Sai frowned and shrugged, his hands doing the universal 'who knows' gesture.

The girl gaped incredulously. "What, you don't know? What, have you been living under a rock for most of your life or something?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed, he pulled out his Katana and held it to her throat before she could blink. "Who told you that?! Whose the one that leaked that sensitive information? B-class secrets should not be known by civilians! Speak!!"

Somewhere in the hokage tower Tsunade sighed. "I can't believe this..." she ignored everyone else in her office whose faces and different degree's of horror, shock, amusement and laughter.

Sai took Naruto by his arm and guided the blade away from the girls neck, ignoring her when she ran away screaming in fear. "I think she used what Sakura-chan calls a figure of speech, Naruto-sempai."

The blonde stared incredulously at the raven haired boy. "How does one make a figure out of speech? Is it not a sound? It wasn't possible for sound to become a solid the last time I checked."

Sai frowned thoughtfully. "It's a trope... I think."

The blonde's eyes lit up in understanding. "Ah... I see. Thank you, Sai-san. You sure are skilled in the ways of social interaction. I must admit I'm envious." he said, causing his unknown observers to sweat drop.

Sai beamed at the praise from his sempai. "Arigatou, Naruto-sempai. I've been practising really hard. And I found a good book that helps too!" he said, digging into his pouch pulling out said book and handing it over to Naruto.

Naruto scanned the book's pages for several seconds, before looking up. "It says here that friends are people who enjoy each other's company and get along very well?" Sai nodded with his creepy smile in place. The blonde nodded sagely. "I see. Then we are friends then, yes?"

Sai's eyes widened in awe. "That's amazing sempai! It took me ages to learn this stuff as fast as you are!" The blond smirked with pride. _'Heh. This stuff is easy.'_

After scanning the pages for several more seconds the blonde looked back at Sai. "It also says that friends give each other 'pet-names', or nicknames, is it? How does that work?"

Sai scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Ino-san said you look at the person you're making a pet-name for and call him or her as what you see the most defining in them. Like when I called her flower-san, because she works with flowers!"

Naruto nodded in understanding with wide eyes. "I see. I see. Give me a moment Sai-san, and I shall think of a pet-name for you."

Sai nodded. "I will do the same, Naruto-sempai."

And thus, the two proceeded to stare at each other for what would be a full 15 minutes, ignorant of the odd looks they were receiving from the passer's by.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Meanwhile, in the Hokage office. Sakura sweat dropped. "Geeze. And here I was thinking Sai was bad. I didn't think there'd ever be a weird clone like him." After a round of nods from everyone in the office, Jiraiya cleared his throat. "I think I'll take the kid under my wing, and show him the way of the world!", only to be punched to the floor by a irate Tsunade, twitching eyebrow and all.

"The hell you will. You'll turn him into a mini perverted clone of yourself!"

Jiraiya sweat dropped.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Their staring contest came to an end when Naruto blinked and nodded sagely. "Alright, I've got it."

Followed by Sai nodding as well. "Likewise."

.

"I shall call you...", Naruto begun, ignorant of those listening and watching in on their conversation.

"I shall call you...!", everyone listening in were on the edges of their 'seats' now.

"Sai-kun..."

Somewhere, five people dropped to the floor sweat dropping.

Sai blinked, and nodded appreciatively. "I like it."

"And I shall call you...", again everyone were on edge.

"Naruto-kun."

"AAAAGH!"

Sai and Naruto looked in the direction of the Hokage tower in confusion where they heard an exasperated shout, and shrugged, turning back to each other. "I like it, Sai-kun. It has flair, and panache!"

Both boys nodded sagely, having come to the same conclusion.

"Anyway. I'm ravenous. Do you know of a place that serves good food around here, Sai-kun?"

Sai nodded, not knowing or understanding the blonde's definition of 'good food', and pointed at a small restaurant in front of them. "Hai, Naruto-kun. Danny's Dingo Dango is right there." Without further ado, both walked off to the restaurant and got seated.

When the waitress came she asked for their order, and they placed them. "I'd like the number three special please.", Sai said, then flashed his creepy paedo-grin at the nervous waitress.

Said waitress nodded, and turned to the blonde, allowing a small blush to creep up onto her cheeks. "What can I get you sir?"

The blonde looked up from his menu and stared with his gorgeous blue eyes, into hers.

"I would like some Chocolate flavoured Pocky."

The waitress, blinked dumbfounded. "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't serve that here."

Naruto nodded, obviously they were out of stock. Many people must have loved the Chocolate Pocky as much as he did.

"Then... I'd like some Banana flavoured Pocky."

"Sir, we don't have that."

The blonde frowned. Was it possible that the general masses liked banana flavoured pocky as much as chocolate flavoured pocky? Impossible!

"Berry flavoured Pocky then."

"I'm sorry sir-"

"No? How about Lime flavoured Pocky?"

"Sir, you have to under-"

"I see. You're out of that as well? Perhaps you have Dango flavoured pocky then?", he guessed wildly.

"...Sir? We only serve Dango here. This is a DANGO stand."

The blonde tilted his head to the side cutely, causing the waitress and others observing, to blush. "I don't... understand miss?"

The waitress sighed. She got the same problem once before when some nut called 'Kakashi' came into this place looking for a certain book. She pulled out a big poster from... somewhere.. and showed it to the blonde.

She pointed to the diagram on the poster, where it showed a stick man eating dango. "We serve Dango here, thus, people only come here to EAT dango. You with me so far?" The blonde nodded slowly, looking at the horribly drawn pictures with no small amount of fascination. _'How is it possible for someone to draw in such an unsightly manner?'_

The waitress nodded, and quickly drew something else on the poster. This time it showed a stickman eating a stick of what looked like pocky. The blonde looked at the picture, not comprehending. "This..." the girl said pointed at the new addition. "Is someone eating pocky." The blonde nodded sagely, he did that often enough to know what it looked like. Curiously he pointed his finger at the poster and asked a question. "Why is your stickman not smiling? The pretty picture on my usual boxes of pocky show a person with a smile eating pocky."

The waitress sighed and added the smiley face, then continued. "Now... This guy is eating pocky... BUT!", she quickly put a circle around the picture and put a cross through the circle. "We don't SERVE, pocky here." Naruto stared at the picture with something akin to horror. How dare this, this... She-Bitch cross out the wonder that is known as pocky?!

The waitress continued, ignorant of the blonde's innermost thoughts. "We serve DANGO, because this is a DANGO stand." She said pointing at the other picture of the stickman eating dango, and for good measure she added a checkmark next to it.

The blonde looked at the picture with a larger degree of horror. How dare she put a checkmark next that, that, THING, and not next to the greatness that is pocky!?

"You... don't have pocky?" The blonde asked in a shaky voice. The waitress nodded smugly. "Yes! He get's it! Thank Kami-sama!" The blonde narrowed his eyes at the woman, the cold glass of water in his hand cracking slightly from pressure.

"Blasphemy! How dare you not sell pocky! I shall not order anything then, good day!", with that, the blonde folded his arms and turned away from the waitress with a huff. The waitress glared at Naruto before marching off to fill Sai's order.

When she had left the immediate area, the blonde sighed and took out a small box of... pocky. He dutifully reached into the small container and pulled out a stick of pocky, holding it reverently. Ever so slowly, he took a small bite and sighed contently. Nibbling on the stick as he finished chewing and swallowing.

Sai could only stare with something akin to awe. Was this what made his sempai so powerful? What gave him such amazing strengths? That made him a god among men? Was it this amazing pocky, that gave such power?

"Naruto-kun...?"

The blonde didn't look up, but his one ear twitched slightly showing that he was listening. "Hnn?"

"Why did you try ordering Pocky, when you already had some?"

The blonde finished chewing before swallowing. "Because, one should always have a healthy stock of pocky incase something as blasphemous as a restaurant without stock should happen.", he proceeded to take another bite.

Sai nodded in comprehension. "So, what are you going to do after this, Naruto-sem..-kun?"

Naruto shrugged. "Well, I 'was' going to go train, but Tsunade-sama ordered me to 'relax' and to have 'fun'. So I guess I'll go move into my new temporary home, in an hour."

The raven haired boy nodded. "And what shall you do in that hour?"

The blonde frowned thoughtfully. "I shall walk around town pondering the significance over the differences between chocolate flavoured pocky, and banana flavoured pocky."

"Ah, I see." Sai nodded. It would seem that his suspicions held truth. Truly his sempai's infatuation with the Pocky meant that he received his powers from Pocky itself. Perhaps it was one of the ingredients that stimulated chakra and neural strength development. This would bear looking into. Until then, he would finish eating his precious Dango for now.

XxX-Review-XxX

In the Hokage office, Tsunade hung her head and sighed. "We've got our work cut out for us, heh, Tsu-hime?" Jiraiya asked in a low voice, so as not to be overheard.

The blonde kage nodded. "Hai. I hope he won't be too difficult or nigh impossible to help."

The white haired pervert nodded.

"Until then..." Tsunade said softly, then continuing in a louder tone of voice. "Shizune-chan, Haku-chan, please go and get the guest room ready for Naruto-kun to live in. I'll finish off the last of the work here, and meet you at home later."

The two nodded and headed out. Sakura followed after them, she knew a dismissal when she heard one. And so, the three youngest left the office, thoughts of a handsome blonde on their minds.

XxX-Review-XxX

Later that night Naruto showed up knocking on Hokage manor's door. After several seconds of waiting, the door was opened by a petite girl with Ebony colored hair, Naruto's age.

Haku blushed cutely when she saw the blonde in front of her. "A-ah. Hello again Naruto-san! Welcome, please follow me and I'll show you to your room." The blonde nodded mechanically in response.

"Is Hokage-sama here?" He asked to provide conversation. The book of Sai's had said something about talking about inane things would help forge bonds of friendship. Sai's book hadn't been wrong so far, so he would keep following it.

"Hai, on her way to sit down for dinner now. After I've shown you to your room you're to join us."

The blonde nodded. "This place is pretty big." He said lamely. Perhaps he would have to read several more books before he had this socializing thing down pat.

Haku didn't take notice, too busy trying not to look at the blonde walking next to her. "O-oh. Yes, there's always been servants working here, and the extra space is a welcome addition to the home itself."

The blonde blinked. "You keep slaves here?" Naruto asked curiously. Haku's eyes shot to the blonde's faster than you can say 'The legendary sucker' and shook her hands in front of her. "NO! No, they aren't slaves. They're paid servants. And are treated fairly."

Naruto shrugged. It wasn't his business whether they kept slaves to make cheap wallets for them or not. He was just here to do this mission of... living with the Hokage? Huh. Weird.

"Are there any rules I'm supposed to know of while I'm living here?", the blonde questioned.

Haku shrugged. "Only the most obvious ones I guess. Like not going into anyone else's room without their permission. Or cleaning up after yourself." The blonde nodded, looks like Kakashi-sempai's idea of panty hunting was out, and followed Haku the rest of the way to his room silently.

"Alright, this is your room. Mine is across yours, and Shizune's is next to mine. Okaa-san's room as at the end of this hall. The servants quarters are all in the lower level, downstairs. Drop your things off, and then we'll head down to dinner." The blonde nodded, did as she asked, and followed her down to the dining room.

"Ah! Naruto-kun, you made it. I was beginning to wonder if you'd gone missing-nin on me or something." Tsunade joked lightly when Naruto entered the dining room next to Haku.

The blonde shrugged. "I'm sure you'd be busy with a lot of paperwork right now, had I actually decided to do something like that, Hokage-sama." he said, either not noticing or not mentioning Tsunade's eyebrow that started twitching when he mentioned the word 'paperwork'

Sitting next to Tsunade, Jiraiya snorted into his cup of sake. "A little advice kid, don't mention the word 'paperwork' around Tsunade when she isn't working. The doctor's said something about it causing her a lot of stress."

Naruto nodded, taking the advice seriously. And took the chair offered next to Haku.

"Alright, I believe it's time I introduced you to everyone since you'll be living with us for an indefinite amount of time." At Naruto's nod, Tsunade motioned next to her. "This, as I'm sure you probably know, is Jiraiya. Pervert extraordinaire. If I find out you let him corrupt you with his perverted ways I'll neuter both you and him."

Jiraiya nodded shakily while Naruto nodded, not knowing why she would threaten his organs that identified him as a male. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Perhaps it involved a certain taijutsu style that only she knew? Yes, he nodded sagely. That had to be it.

"Next, we have Shizune-chan. She may tell you she's my first apprentice. Just ignore that though, I'M telling you, she's my older adoptive daughter whom I love very much", she grinned when she noticed Shizune blushing a furious shade of red. "And sitting next to you is Haku-chan, my younger adoptive daughter, whom I also love very much."

Clearing her throat, Tsunade continued. "Now, I'm sure you already did something like this when you first became a gennin. But I want you as well as everyone here, to introduce themselves, so that you can get to know us better. I'll begin."

Naruto sat up straighter. Perhaps she would give away the name of her odd taijutsu style that dealt with the neutering of males? Best to pay attention.

"My name is Senju Tsunade. My likes are my two adoptive daughters, spending time with my daughters and furthering my medical knowledge. I also enjoy peaceful walks near sunset when there isn't a pervert nearby to annoy me." Here she shot Jiraiya a death glare, causing him to whine pitifully.

"I dislike ignorant bigots and arrogant fools. My hobbies are gambling-" "Which she sucks at", Jiraiya cut in with an amused grin. He shrunk back when she glared at him. "Anyway... gambling, and drinking sake. My dream is to serve Konoha to my best potential as it's current Hokage.", she finished motioning to Jiraiya. Naruto did his best to hide his disappointment when Tsunade didn't mention any secret taijutsu styles.

"The name's Jiraiya kid! I'm the great and wise sage from Mt. Myouboku! I am known far and wide for my wonderful pieces of literature." "Get on with it already, pervert.", the white haired man shuddered when Tsunade glared at him with killing intent, but continued anyway.

"I like Tsu-hime, but she always hates me! Life is so unfair." Here he sobbed fake tears. "I like... heh, 'researching', and I dislike a certain hebi-teme. My hobbies include writing my wonderful literature and annoying Tsu-hime! My dream is to have my literature recognized by everyone in the world as the greatest works ever!", he finished cheerfully. Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Perhaps he should write a book discussing the philosophy and merits of the Pocky. Surely people would love him for it.

Tsunade reigned her temper and controlled her twitching eyebrow, before pointing to Shizune to begin. "It's a pleasure to meet you Naruto-san. My name is Senju Shizune. I'm 19 years old. I like reading, working on my med-jutsu and spending time with Haku-chan and Okaa-san. I dislike it when Okaa-san drinks and sucks at gambling" "Hey!" "My hobbies include developing new jutsu in my spare time, or going to the park for walks. My dream is to make my family proud of me through my accomplishments."

When Naruto nodded, and gave her what the book had said a 'smile', hoping he didn't screw it up. He didn't, if her blushing was anything to say, but he just ignored it. After all, he still had a lot of time to practise the techniques from Sai's book. Tsunade smirked at Shizune's reaction and nodded to Haku.

"Hello Naruto-san, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Senju Haku. I'm 16 years old. I like spending time with Okaa-san and Shizu-chan. I also like reading and going out to watch good movies. I dislike Okaa-san's gambling addiction and how bad she is at it-" "Hey!" "I dislike arrogant, mean and bigoted people. My hobbies are thinking up new jutsu and working on perfecting my old ones. My dream has already been fulfilled, which is to have a wonderful family. I'm still thinking on another one, though."

Again Naruto nodded, and 'smiled' causing her to blush, but again, he ignored it. Odd huh. Lot of people with fevers these days, perhaps it would be wise to inform the hospital staff ahead of time. They sat for what seemed like hours until Tsunade's annoyance got the better of her. "Well?!", she asked impatiently.

Naruto tilted his head to the side, causing another round of blushes. "Well what, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade sighed. "Introduce yourself, your likes, dislikes, hobby and your dream. And in the future, call me Tsunade when I'm not in office, alright?"

At Naruto's nod of agreement, she motioned for him to start. "My primary identifier is Uzumaki Naruto. The time passed since my birth is approximately 16 years, 4 months, 18 hours and 47 seconds. I like Pocky. The only dislike I have is for those who sully the name of Pocky. My hobbies include training, exercising, furthering my knowledge and training. I have no dream."

Naruto either didn't notice or didn't care about the fact that everyone on the table was staring oddly at him. Jiraiya broke the silence first. "What exactly do you mean by primary identifier?"

The blonde shrugged, but answered the question anyway. "I was placed in an orphanage at birth. Therefore my true name that was to be given by, whom I'm assuming, dead parents, is unknown. Therefore I rationalize that the orphanage gave me my current primary identifier."

The more Naruto spoke, the more Jiraiya and Tsunade felt their hearts being crushed. They shared a look as well as a private thought. _'I'm his god-mother/father. I was supposed to be there for him when he was younger. I'm so sorry I failed you Minato/Kushina.'_

Haku broke the somber mood when she asked her own question. "What do you mean you have no dream Naruto-san?"

The blonde looked up, honestly confused. "What on earth do you mean, Haku-san? I'm not allowed one."

Slightly angered, Haku spoke again. "Why not?"

Naruto smiled eerily with his cold indifferent eyes flashing slightly. "Why?..."

His eyes closed and opened revealing old weary eyes. "Because a weapon is not allowed a dream, Haku-san. A dream would blunt the weapon"

A loud thump brought everyone's attention to Jiraiya and Tsunade whose heads had hit the table.

_'Yup'_ the blonde of the two thought. _'We've got our work cut out for us. Why?!'. _She thought with chibi tears running down her face. Jiraiya repeatedly banged his head into the table much to everyone else's confusion._ 'Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! How am I suppose to get research from the gaki if he's like this? Why me?!'_

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

_The following day._

He found himself surrounded by mountains, tall and majestic, from all sides. His surrounding area was filled with beautiful sakura tree's, and the air had a faint aroma of... sake?

Without a second's hesitation, he followed the direction of the smell, walking through foliage and shrubs, bushels of odd plants he had never before seen in his life, and came across a most curious sight.

Before him, he looked on in awe at the beautiful mist filled hot spring, and a lovely waterfall off in the distance. As he neared the hot spring, he heard what sounded like feminine giggles and laughter. His eyes widened and glazed slightly when one of the girls saw him and pulled him into the hot spring with a giggle. He grinned slightly when one positioned herself to his left, and another to his right, snuggling into his sides.

In front of him he saw a raven haired beauty with a gentle smile and rosy blush, adorning her face. Her lips moved, as if speaking, but oddly enough, he couldn't hear what she was saying.

"Sorry, what?"

The brunette beauty spoke again, lips moving, yet again no sound could be heard.

"What? I... can't hear you?"

When she spoke this time, sound escaped her lips at last.

"I said... would you-..."

His eyes widened and a blush graced his face. "Yes?"

"Would you just, WAKE UP!"

XxX-Review my minions!-XxX

"WAKE UP!"

"AAAARGGH!"

With a yelp, a white haired pervert jumped into the air, and fell out of his bed.

Through bleary eyes he looked up and saw Tsunade glaring at him. He gladly returned the glare of course. "What the hell was that for!? I was having the most wonderful dream ever!"

"Ero-Baka!"

"Ow ow ow ow!"

Nursing a swollen bump on his head, Jiraiya looked up at the pissed blonde woman before him. "Yes, Tsu-hime?", he asked, trying to save his skin for now.

"I said it's time to get up idiot! The servants couldn't get you up, something about giggling perversely. I swear if you did something to them...", she threatened.

Jiraiya sweat dropped. "Eh. I'm up now. Geez."

"Breakfast ready yet?"

The blonde nodded as they walked down the stairs, in the direction of the kitchen.

"It should be, the servants are usually busy with it right now..."

Both stopped and froze when they entered the kitchen. Inside the kitchen they saw one of the two servants that were to make breakfast busy arguing with their new blonde guest.

"Uzumaki-san, please! You can't just swallow that stuff, it's not good for you! We're almost done making breakfast for everyone anyway."

The blonde in question shrugged. Currently he was busy adding several raw eggs, tomatoes, peas and milk into a container for the blender. "Your concern is unnecessary Mikato-san. This blend of proteins and carbohydrates will feed my body the most efficiently. It provides me with all the required nutrients and vitamins my body will need to remain at 100 percent efficiency."

"But you didn't crack the eggs and throw away the shells!"

The blonde blinked. "The shells contain a 93 percent calcium carbonate property. Calcium is an essential part of my diet to keep my bones strong. Therefore the egg shells are to be eaten."

Now every in the kitchen was staring oddly at the blonde, including the two latest arrivals, Shizune and Haku.

His drink having been fully blended, the blonde removed the cap and raised it to his lips to drink, only to blink in confusion when Tsunade snatched it from his hands.

"Tsunade-sama?"

The blonde woman glared at Naruto, and pointed at doorway. "Dining room. Go sit. Now."

Naruto knew better than to disobey a direct command from his superior and nodded. "As you command, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade sighed, and handed the 'drink' to her servant to throw away and took a seat at the table along with everyone else. _'How long has he been eating crap like that? Does he even know what normal food tastes like?'_

She was interrupted from her thoughts when the only other blonde at the table spoke. "What are your orders Tsunade-sama?"

She let out a sigh. "As of now, you're going to be eating normal food, Naruto-kun. That crap you were about to swallow isn't normal food. You will eat what you're served. Okay?"

The blonde soldier nodded mechanically, his cold calculating eyes glinting. "Hai Tsunade-sama."

"Tsunade-sama?"

The woman in question looked up into her fellow blonde's eyes. "Hai, Naruto-kun?"

"How am I to define this 'normal food' as you say? My food shake had all the necessary vital nutrients and vitamins. As that not sufficient?"

A vein could be seen throbbing on Tsunade's forehead. She smiled eerily at the blonde and answered him.

"Look... it's normal because I say it is, alright? That, and a small percentage of those egg shells are toxic." she calmy explained, causing everyone to flinch. A calm Tsunade was fine. A calm Tsunade with the twitching eyebrow was dangerous, but tolerable. But a calm Tsunade with that creepy grin pasted on her face meant doom and destruction.

Naruto seemed oblivious though and blinked completely unaffected. Obviously he had never seen a woman scorned before. "Of course Tsunade-sama, as you command."

"And stop adding that suffix will you? It's growing annoying, gaki!"

"Yes, Tsunade-hime."

Everyone gaped at the new suffix, while Jiraiya tried to stifle his laughter. Tsunade however, was not amused. And just before 'mt. Tsunade' was about to erupt, the servants placed the plates filled with breakfast in front those seated at the table.

And so, everyone happily began to eat a hearty breakfast, though, reluctantly on Naruto's part. After breakfast and the plates had been removed they all sat back drinking their morning drinks. Tsunade, her own blend of green tea. Jiraiya, a blend he got in large quantities from iwa and the others had Konoha made tea. Naruto however...

"I would like Pocky please."

"Um... Uzumaki-san, we don't have that."

"Banana flavored pocky then."

"Gaki!"

"Hai Tsunade-hime?"

Tsunade massaged her throbbing temples trying very hard not to bash the blonde's skull in. "Just have some tea alright? You can get some... pocky, later."

The blonde nodded and the servant poured him a cup of tea. While drinking, Naruto took note of Jiraiya staring at him. Odd. Were those ryuu signs in his eyes? Kai. Kai. It must have been a genjutsu the blonde had never heard of.

"Do you require anything Jiraiya-sama?"

The pervert in question blinked. "Huh, whadya mean kid?"

"You were staring at me for an inordinate variable of time, Jiraiya-sama. I merely assumed you wished to address me, regarding an important matter."

The pervert smirked and gave a slight nod. "Yeah. It's Sunday, so I'm pretty much off for today. I figured I'd show you a thing or two."

The blonde's eyes widened slightly in understanding. "Ah. You wish to teach me something?"

Jiraiya grinned and nodded. Soon he would be able to teach the kid just like Minato would have wanted. He would definitely be learning the Rasengan. He could already see it, the next yellow flash, or something else really cheesy, and people would respect him even more for having trained another Hokage.. Oh yes ind-

"No thank you."

-eed. Wait WHAT!?

"What!?" He asked incredulously. How dare this whelp not wish to learn from Jiraiya the great! His eyes narrowed slightly. Yes, he would not tolerate such blasphemy!

"I said: 'No thank you', Jiraiya-sama. I would advice you to have a med-nin check out your hearing. You might be going deaf in your old age, Jiraiya-sama."

The pervert's eyebrow twitched as he glared at the blonde. "I heard you the first time, gaki. I mean WHY would you refuse to learn techniques from me, the great Jiraiya!?"

The blonde tilted his head to the side, causing a round of blushes amongst Haku, Shizune and the female servants present. "Tsunade-hime told me not to learn anything from you under threat of castration, Jiraiya-sama. You were present when she mentioned so, remember?"

Jiraiya glared at Tsunade when she dared to giggle at the situation. "She said only if I taught you something perverted, which I probably won't... Brat."

"Is this true Tsunade-hime?" The blonde asked curiously.

When Tsunade nodded, making no effort to hide her grin, Naruto turned back to Jiraiya. "Why do you wish to teach me Jiraiya-sama? I'm already a powerful enough weapon for Konoha."

Both Jiraiya and Tsunade winced at the 'weapon' comment but didn't comment.

"I've got nothing better to do brat, besides I want to see how fast you learn the hardest technique I know."

Tsunade gasped in shock. "Jiraiya! Don't tell me you're going to teach him-"

"Yeah, the rasengan. Don't worry though. I doubt this brat will be able to use it for at least 2 years. After all, it took the yondaime three years to create and master it."

"Well, let's get going. We will be outside on the manor's training grounds if you need us Tsu-hime!" That said, Jiraiya frog-marched the blonde outside.

Shizune blinked. "Okaa-san, he's going to learn the rasengan? That technique that ero-sennin accidentally blew up one of your walls with?"

Tsunade paled as she recalled that day. She quickly regained her composure and stood up. "I guess I better keep an eye on those idiots then. You two coming?"

"Hai Okaa-san!"

XxX-Review my minionS!-XxX

"Why am I holding a water filled balloon, Jiraiya-sama? I had thought the rumors of you being childish were false."

"Shut-up and listen Gaki!"

Jiraiya took a deep breath counted to ten and let it out with a sigh._ 'Must not strangle. Must not strangle. Must not strangle.'_

"Alright, listen up. The rasengan is divided into three steps. The first involves a water balloon. I want you to burst the balloon. Got it?"

The blonde nodded and squeezed the balloon in his hand causing it to burst. "Now what Jiraiya-sama?"

"DAMNIT GAKI! I meant with chakra! Here's another one."

Again the blonde took the balloon in his hand. This time he used his chakra to expand the balloon's ball like shape until the rubber tore and the balloon burst.

The white haired pervert sighed. "Alright kid. Lemme just show you how the first step SHOULD be done. Stand back and let a pro show you."

Naruto watched intently as Jiraiya's balloon rotated in different directions until the balloon eventually burst.

"You see? Now you try. I expect this to take you a few months to mast-" 'pop' 'splash' "...-er?"

Jiraiya gaped as Naruto repeated his actions, and had the chakra on his balloon rotate the water in several different directions, eventually causing his balloon to burst.

"Now what Jiraiya-sama?"

"Eh... That was a fluke. Here try it again."

'pop' 'splash'

"Again."

'pop' 'splash'

A sigh.

"Alright, next step. Here take this rubber ball. The next step involves following the previous one with the rotation bit. But now you need to add some power to it. Like so." With that said, Jiraiya's rubber ball ripped apart.

'bang!'

"Understand?"

The blonde nodded and took a rubber ball from the frog sannin.

"Now then. This may seem hard and I understand if you want to take your time on this step. It's a very difficult step and should keep you busy for several mon-" 'bang!' "...-ths.."

By now, Jiraiya and his and Naruto's little audience was gaping.

"Try it again."

'bang!'

"You're cheating somehow! Again!"

'bang!'

A weary sigh.

"The last step involves making a thin layer of chakra to contain the previous two steps. The layer should be about as thin as a balloon's, which is why you'll be using a blown up balloon."

Naruto took the balloon and did as asked. It was difficult.

Jiraiya slowly started smirking as Naruto continued his efforts.

"Heh. Alright, because the third step is without a doubt the hardest of them all, it should DEFINITELY take you several months to finish. So if you need any tips to do-" "How's this look Jiraiya-sama?"

Everyone looking at the blonde gaped. In his palm was a perfectly formed rasengan. Jiraiya nodded shakily and pointed behind the blonde. "Ram it into that boulder and well see how effective it is."

The blonde shrugged and did as he was told. When the blue sphere hit the boulder, the boulder was reduces to a pile of gravel after a small explosion of power.

"Was there anything else you wished to show me, Jiraiya-sama?"

With chibi tears running down his face Jiraiya shook his head and motioned for the blonde to walk away. "No we're done for the day. You go on and do your things, I'll just... stand here..."

_'The damn brat made it look so easy! I spent nearly a year to master it!'_

The blonde shrugged and set off to go train._ 'After training I'll head to the library and learn more of this social interaction stuff from the books available there.'_

Meanwhile, two of the three observers were blushing furiously.

_'So cool!'_, they both thought.

Tsunade noticed this and took her opportunity to tease the two girls.

"Girls, if you go lusting after our new guest, I want to be sure you both know how to use the contraceptive-jutsu-"

"OKAA-SAN!"

Two embarassed shouts were heard from the hokage manor training ground.

XxX-Review my minionS!-XxX

Old ch's 1 and 2 have been combined for those of you that noticed. -;


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 1**_

_The same day, later in the afternoon._

Dodging out of the path of a group of women chasing after Jiraiya, Naruto kept walking at an even pace. He had just finished the last of his training for the day. The blonde did not believe in ever not training, as that would just atrophy his hard earned strength and power. Many of his fellow nin believed in such trivial things as limitations and barriers that bound them down from growing stronger. Not Naruto however. If he was chained, then he would keep ripping at the chains until they eventually broke free or he broke down. If he broke down, he would just heal himself and try again. That was his way of the ninja.

Throughout the entirety of his life, there had been nothing that the blonde couldn't learn. So how hard could this socializing thing possibly be?

The blonde's attention turned to his friend, 'Sai-kun', when he called out his name. "Naruto-kun! Over here."

Upon closer inspection, the blonde noticed that Sai was accompanied by several other boys. One with hair a shade of dark brown, slit eyes and a feral look on his face. Next to him stood a tall dark haired boy, wearing a hoodie and sunglasses, most of his body covered by his trench coat/hoody. An Inuzuka and Abarume respectively.

Another boy was eating out of a pack of chips, large and bulky in appearance his hair a light brown and light ebony colored eyes. Standing next to him was a lazy looking fellow, brown hair and eyes a shade darker than average. He appeared to almost be falling asleep where he stood. Standing nearby those two was a tall muscular boy, clad in a green spandex shirt. Huh they still made those? Good thing he didn't wear a full spandex body suit at least.

Naruto approached the group and held out his hand to Sai. The book had mentioned good friends had a 'special greeting' of some sort. Both he and Sai and spent a good hour earlier that day coming up with one.

When Sai took the blonde's hand they did several motions whilst still holding hands, ranging from twisting their thumbs and sliding their palms in very odd motions. Eventually after several seconds the 'special greeting' ended when their thumbs touched each other's and dragged their fingers away from each other eliciting a semi-loud 'snap'.

"Good evening, Sai-kun. Acquaintances of yours I presume?" Naruto asked motioning his head towards the group behind Sai, not noticing the odd looks they received from their 'special greeting'.

Sai nodded, his eyes squinting slightly as always. "Hai, we aren't going on any missions for a while, so we're 'hanging away'."

Someone snorted loudly and clapped Sai roughly on the back. "It's 'out' Sai. Hanging out. You've still got a lot to learn." The Inuzuka seemed to be establishing alpha male status quickly, the blonde noted.

The feral boy turned toward the blonde and held out his hand as greeting. "Hey, I'm Inuzuka Kiba, that's Abarume Shino, Nara Shikamaru, Akamichi Chouji and Rock Lee." He introduced the others motioning with his hand where necessary, receiving nods in turn from the aforementioned boys.

The blonde nodded and 'smiled politely', as the book instructed him. It came out more pleasant that polite however. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I'm pleased to meet you all.", he said taking Kiba's until now forgotten hand. "What exactly is this 'hanging out' you speak of, if you don't mind me asking?"

Kiba blinked in confusion before he let out a bark of a laughter. "Haha ha! Another Sai huh? Don't worry, well teach you all about the ways of life kid! Just hang out with us."

If Naruto was offended by the 'kid' comment, he hid it well. "Very well. I will enjoy learning from you all. Thanks for having me." The others grinned. It would seem that they accepted him and that he was now inducted into their... pack?... group?... Whatever.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Several minutes later the group of boys could be seen walking in the direction of a local cinema and arcade. Or at least Naruto thought they were. Kiba had said: "We're going to the arcade to pick up chicks for going to the flicks!"

Naruto had spent a good several seconds trying to decipher Kiba's odd usage of words, but he believed he had succeeded... more or less anyway. He was still pondering why exactly an arcade would sell young birds. _'Things just seem to get stranger and stranger. For what purpose would they pick up young birds? A snack for the cinemas perhaps? Yes, that has to be it! They must cook them for a snack somewhere inside. Why such a meager snack though?'_

The blonde was brought out of his thoughts when a cold beverage was offered to him by Chouji. It would appear that they had arrived at the arcade and bought refreshments while he was deep in thought. "Thank you Chouji-kun, what is it?"

The bulky boy gaped at the blonde. "You mean you've never had any soda or anything?" At the blonde shaking his head negatively the young Akamichi cried out. "Blasphemy!"

Chouji coughed into his hand and stood with his back straight. "Okay Naruto-kun, I'll tell you all about the wonder that is known as soda's and drinks. What you're holding is called a fruit flavoured drink, of the soda kind. Soda basically means flavored carbonated water."

The blonde tilted his head to the side. "Would it not be the same to just drink water then?" The Akamichi shook his head and explained further. "Sure water is good and all, it's healthy and it costs next to nothing. BUT, soda has a big advantage over water. That being, it has flavor, and the carbonated water makes it feel nice going down. Understand?"

Naruto took a sip and blinked._ 'It's not as good as pocky but it will suffice I suppose.'_

"It's... pretty good actually. So one drink's soda because of its flavor then?" Chouji chuckled and shook his head. "Not exactly. It's more of a casual type of drink to drink amongst friends if that makes sense. Other however simply drink it because it tastes good. Don't you have something that you eat or drink just because of the good taste?"

The blonde's eyes widened in understanding, as if enlightened. "I see, I see. So the soda is to others, much like my pocky is to me, yes?" The bulky boy grinned and nodded.

"Yosh! Chouji is right Naruto-kun. Everyone has an aquired taste for something! Like myself and my sensei, we both drink prune juice because it's both healthy for the body and it tastes good for us!"

"Alright guys, huddle around." Kiba announced, drawing everyone's attention. "It's go time." He finished in what he thought was a suave smile. He looked more like a horny dog in heat to the blonde, though he didn't make mention of it.

"Go time? Go where?" Sai asked eloquently. Shikamaru snorted. "Troublesome mutt." "Hey!"

"Alright, alright. Back to the plan. The first stage was picking up chicks. Then we go to the flicks with chicks. Got it?"

Naruto nodded, understandingly, or at least he thought he understood. "Where are we going to pick up the 'chicks'? Kiba-san?"

The Inuzuka grinned in a feral way at the blonde. "Drop the '-san' Naruto. We're all friends here. And as for the chicks... Lo and behold my friends! This place is swarming with gorgeous young ladies! Mwha hahaha!" he finished and motioned to all the groups of teenage girls in the arcade.

"Yosh! I will show off my flames of youth and be the first of us to pick up a 'chick'!" The spandex shirt guy said. "The first to get a 'chick' is the winner between us all! What say you my friends?!" he finished in an odd pose, with his fist outstretched, thumb raised and what is known by many as 'the good guy pose'.

Naruto replied the only way he knew of in such an odd situation. "Hnn"

Immediately Lee broke down in tears holding his fist shaking slightly. "Ouch! You are so hip Naruto-kun! You will be my new rival and I shall work hard to surpass you! Yosh!"

The blonde shrugged and turned to Kiba, he appeared to be the leader of this odd band of merry men. "How shall we approach... the.. 'ladies'?"

Kiba grinned, eyes glinting with pride. "That's the spirit! At least Naruto and Lee's willing to try, unlike you cowards!" He finished glaring at the Nara, Akamichi and Abarume that seemed to be edging away from the girls all over the arcade.

The Nara snorted. "Bah, it's just troublesome. What's more, it's too troublesome to waste time going up and getting a 'chick' because they'll just turn you down. See? Waste of time."

The Akamichi nodded. "He's right. The girls wont even spare a glance at us, we're just losers. This is the loser-group, remember?"

Shino replied by pushing his glasses up with his index finger. "Indeed."

Kiba's eyebrow twitched, barely preventing himself from lashing out verbally. "Losers? WE are the cool kids! The chicks won't know WHAT hit em! Eh? Eh?"

Shino shifted his weight slightly to his other leg and spoke after having taken a sip of his drink. "I must agree with Chouji and Shikamaru, Kiba-kun. We ARE losers. Shikamaru's lazy and unmotivated. Chouji's shy. Me, Sai and Naruto are socially inept. You're loud, abrasive, aggressive, perverted, hot-headed.." "Aarrgh! I get it, I get it! But still, we've got to at least TRY! Are you guys men or are you mice?!" Kiba interrupted.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. He was no mouse. No way in hell! He was the manliest of all his ANBU comrades. The females even told him so. He wouldn't back down from such a petty challenge. He took a step forward, eyes glinting with determination. "I'm no mouse, I'll try, Kiba-kun." he grunted.

Kiba looked like Christmas had come early, and grinned at the blonde. "Hah! That's two MEN so far. So whose the mice here?" The rest grudgingly stepped forward and said they would at least try.

The feral dog boy clapped his hands together with a grin. "Excellent! Okay first things first. I'm going to give you guys a lesson so listen carefully."

He coughed into his hand to clear his throat. "How to woo woman 101. I'll be blunt. Chicks dig cool suave guys, gentlemen. The three C's! You have to be cool, confident and charming and sweet talk em nice and good. Those are the three important digs. Understand?"

Sai nodded his head sagely. "Ah! I see, I see. Cool, confident and charming! I have read up much of those concepts. This should be as Kiba-kun once said, 'like taking candy from a baby', yes?"

Kiba grinned and nodded while the others save Naruto tried hiding their snickers. "Okay! We all find a chick then we meet up here at 6:30pm to head off to the cinemas. Now..." he said and a sickeningly sweet smile graced his face. "Whose going to go first?", he asked a bit nervously.

The other guys stared right back at him, making no motion to go first. "Well, anyone?" The only responses he received was Shino adjusting his glasses, Chouji eating a chip, Sai tilting his head in confusion and Shikamaru discreetly edging away from the group, only to be pulled back by an irrate Kiba.

"No? What about..." He turned to Naruto and Lee. Both whom seemed to be playing rock, paper and scissors to decide something. When he approached them, he heard them speaking. "Yosh! The score is now 1-0 in my favor Naruto-kun! Gai-sensei would be so proud! What shall the next challenge be?" The blonde shrugged. "A pocky eating contest?"

Kiba sighed. "Okay I see it's come to this. We will draw straws. Luckily I brought some!" He said holding out some chop sticks in differently cut lengths.

"The one with the short straw goes first, second shortest goes second, etc. etc. Until the one with the longest goes last, got it?" The others nodded somberly and brought out their hands, everyone save Naruto and Sai's hands were shaking nervously. "Alright. On three. OnetwoTHREE!" He said quickly.

They all grabbed a stick and pulled back. Kiba paled slightly when he drew the shortest one. "A-ah. Okay! Here I go, wish me luck."

That said, he nervously marched off to a pretty blonde he had been eyeing. He spoke to her and said something that 'the guys' assumed was funny as she giggled at him. He spoke again, more confidently, this time however the girl glared at him, slapped him and with a huff turned around and walked away from him. Kiba's shoulder's sagged in defeat and he returned to 'the guys'.

"Well damn, this shit is harder than I thought." He received sympathetic looks from the others. "Ah well! So! Whose next?!" He asked, eager to laugh at someone else's misfortune. Sai stepped forward with his stick and nodded. "Wish me luck fellows. Here goes."

Sai stiffly walked off to the same blonde Kiba had 'sweet talked' several seconds ago and attempted to 'sweet talk' her. For the first several seconds of the conversation he seemed to be creeping her out, but oddly enough, she kept talking to him.

"Good evening, my name is Sai." He said holding out his hand, creepy paedo-grin firmly in place. The young girl eyed it warily and shook it. "I'm Mei. Was there something you wanted, Sai-san?" The boy beamed. Success! Now he just had to 'sweet talk' her, as Kiba told him. "Indeed. Would you like... uh... my paintbrush on your canvas?"

The young blonde gaped. "W-what?" Sai frowned. Well that pick-up line seemed shot to hell in a handbag. Best to keep trying. "Would you like to mix your paint with mine, and make the color called... uh.. 'luuurve'?"

It was official, the young girl was seriously starting to feel creeped out. His paedophile grin didn't help matters either. "Look... What are you trying to say? You're starting to creep me out Sai-san."

Sai's eyes glinted with determination. It would seem he would have to use the ace up his sleeve that Kiba-kun told him would work for sure. "...If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" The girl gaped at him, until what he said registered. Her expression turned murderous and she slapped him and left without a further word.

Meanwhile back at 'the guys', Naruto turned to Kiba. "What exactly did you say to that girl? She seemed angered and offended." The Inuzuka sighed with his shoulder's hunched. "It started out fine.. did the standard. 'Hey, what's a beautiful doll like you doin' in this joint?' starter. She laughed and I thought I had it in the bag so I invited her to come to the movies with us.

Naruto blinked confused. "What exactly did you say when you invited her?" Kiba sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Eh... It went something like. :'So bebe, you wanna hold yourself against me and come with me a few guys and go watch a flick?'"

The blonde nodded in understanding. _'From what I can learn from his attempt, girls don't want to be held so early in the night, or not at all.'_

His gaze turned to see Sai returning to the group with a matching red slap-imprint on his face like Kiba. "Baka!" Kiba bonked him on the head. "You weren't supposed to go to the exact same girl, that usually means they don't want anything to do with anyone." Sai nodded in understanding, flipped out a notebook from somewhere and quickly jotted down some notes. Those watching sweat dropped.

'cough' "Alright! Whose up next?" Kiba asked grinned eerily. Chouji raised his hand nervously and walked off without a further word. Naruto turned to Sai. "So what exactly did you say to that girl Sai-kun?"

His friend cocked his head to the side slightly. "I introduced myself, and then she introduced herself. After that I followed the pointers in my 'dating' book but it was all for naught, she called me creepy and walked off. Odd really."

Naruto blinked. "Do you have that book with you?" Sai nodded with a happy grin and forked over the book. The blonde used his far-above-average speed reading skills of 7612 words per minute and quickly paged through the entire small booklet. By the time he finished the book and returned it to Sai he saw chouji had already hooked up with a girl. She wasn't very pretty, but she wasn't ugly either. She looked like an average teenage girl. Average in a good way, the blonde noted, she seemed to enjoy being with Chouji.

Kiba let out a sigh. "Damn. Chouji scored before we did. How embarrassing. Welp, whose up next?" He asked rubbing his hands grinning eerily. After comparing their chopsticks they determined that Shikamaru was up next. With a muttered 'troublesome' he walked off, talked to the first random girl he came across and proceeded to 'woo' her.

"Ugh... Hello." The girl turned from the machine she was playing on and eyed the brunette boy, he looked decently good enough. "Hello? Can I help you?" The boy sighed, Kiba's advice in mind. "Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again? " The girl blinked at the pick-up line. "Huh?"

Sigh. _'Troublesome. Damn you, Kiba.' _

"There must be something wrong with my eyes, I can't take them off you. " The girl blushed slightly. "Oh? Not bad, but try again." Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched._ 'Annoying bitch. Hows this for you?!'_

"My love for you is like diarrhea, I just cant hold it in." The girl gaped with a small blush, then glared at him and walked off with a huff.

Meanwhile at 'the guys'.

"Shino-san...?" Naruto asked walking closer to the Abarume. The boy acknowledged the blonde with a nod. "Naruto-kun, call me Shino-kun, it's as Kiba-kun said earlier. We're all friends here."

Naruto nodded. "Ah. Shino-kun then. I've pretty much gotten to know everyone a bit so far, yourself being the exception. Could you please tell me a bit of yourself?" The book had taught the blonde to get to know your potential 'friends' somewhat.

Shino rose an eyebrow. "What do you wish to know, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde shrugged. "Anything really. What do you like for example? I like pocky and all the many flavors of pocky."

The Abarume nodded in understanding. "I like..."

Naruto rose an eyebrow curiously. What would the stoic boy like? He didn't exactly give much away with his appearance.

"I like..." Shino mumbled thoughtfully... Several of 'the guys' that were listening in edged closer to hear what the bug user would say.

"I like bugs." Most of 'the guys' sweat dropped.

Naruto nodded seriously. "Ah.. I see. Thank you for sharing that personal bit of information with me Shino-kun." The Abarume nodded seriously, and adjusted his glasses with his index finger, causing the glasses to glint under the arcade's lights. "No problem, Naruto-kun. Thank you for sharing your own like of pocky with me." Naruto gave a 'grin' at the other boy. He had made another 'friend' it seemed.

"Troublesome" Was the first word Shikamaru said when he arrived back at 'the guys'. After some sympathetic chuckle's from 'the guys' Kiba spoke up. "So, whose next?" After comparing their sticks, they concluded that Naruto was to go next. With a few slaps on the back he was on his way to find someone to woo. His acute eyes scanned all the arcade and game machines until he locked onto an interesting sight.

A booth where you had to throw darts in certain patterns at balloons to win a gift, a brown haired girl with shoulder length pony tail, and warm chocolate brown eyes, stood and threw the darts with enough precision to make the average shinobi jealous. He slowly approached her from behind and after she made another textbook perfect throw he commented. "Your form is perfect."

The girl jerked forward with a sweat drop, and turned to see a handsome blonde behind her. She blinked. _'I've heard hundreds of pick up lines, all of them either terrible, funny, lame and such, but this one certainly took the cake.'_

"Oh really? Care to elaborate?" She asked sweetly, discreetly reaching for a kunai she had hidden on herself.

Naruto took note of her actions and frowned._ 'What did I say wrong? Hmmm... The book said sometimes women tend to interpret things differently from what men think? Does she think I meant something else? Best to elaborate, I don't want a slap. Seriously.'_

"Yes, I can think of many shinobi that would be jealous of your throwing ability. You waste little if any movement when you throw those darts." The girl blushed at his comment. _'Oh my Kami-sama. I can't believe I thought he was speaking of something else. Wait, how'd he notice I don't have any flaws in my form? A shinobi?'_

"T-thanks." She stuttered out. After all, it was rare for anyone to compliment her throwing skills. To her it was as good as saying that she was beautiful. "Not many realize that though, are you a trained ninja?"

The blonde nodded, "Yup." That social book of Sai's had said using slang every now and then helped lighten the mood somewhat. "Though I've only recently rejoined the public ranks."

The brunette blinked curiously. "Public? We're you in ANBU then?" At the blonde's nod, the girl found herself getting more and more interested. "Oh really? For how long were you one?" The blonde shrugged his shoulders, almost apologetically. "I'm sorry, but if I told you that, I'd have to kill you. Village secrets and all."

Tenten almost burst out laughing at the cliché line. She grinned at the blonde and fingered her Kunai clearly for the blonde to see. "Oh? I don't suppose you'd be willing to break the rules and tell little ol' me just once?" The blonde grinned, clearly amused. "I'm sorry, no offence, but I'd rather not face Hokage-sama's wrath over an information leak."

Tenten's grin turned into a smile. After all, she had been victim to Tsunade's wrath along with her teammates. Not a pretty sight. "Oh? A pity really. Is there any other reason you came to talk to me, other than pointing out my 'form'?", she asked eyes glinting with laughter.

The blonde scratched his head sheepishly. "Well... Myself and several other.. 'friends'... are going to the cinema's to watch a movie later tonight. It was our self appointed leader's idea to, in his own words: 'pick up chicks to go to the flicks'." The girl snorted. That sounded way to corny for comfort.

"And what exactly will you be doing with this.. 'chick' at the 'flicks'?", she asked, honestly amused. The blonde sighed. "I have no idea I'm afraid. I'm still rather new to this 'hanging out' thing as my friends told me. Treat the 'chick' respectfully I think?"

At his answer the girl beamed. "Good answer. Alright, you've got me interested. I'll tag along, for now... um?"

Naruto helped her out and introduced himself, his hand held out. "Uzumaki Naruto, and may I know the name of the girl that will grace me with her lovely presence?" Idly the blonde wondered if he was laying the charm on too thickly? Nah...

Said girl, blushed and took his hand. "Shuuzou Tenten, Naruto, pleased to meet you."

The blonde brought her hand closer and brushed his lips on her knuckles. "The pleasure is all mine, Tenten-san." Naruto remained ignorant of her blush however. Inwardly, he was thanking Kami-sama for insuring Sai had that book with him. A passage from the book had come to mind when he introduced himself. The most important words being, 'women like flattery and to feel special'.

"W-well. When are your friends h-heading off to the m-movies, Naruto?" Tenten asked, fighting to remain casual while speaking, while inwardly cursing her stutters. The blonde rose an eyebrow, but didn't comment. "The apparent 'Alpha male' told us to meet up somewhere at 6:30pm. It's six now, so we've got some time to waste."

At Tenten's nod the blonde scratched his head nervously. The weapon's expert caught on and asked the blonde what was wrong. "Ah. I'm still new at this as I'm sure you'll realize Tenten-san. So could you please show me what one exactly does in an arcade?"

Tenten smiled and nodded, gently taking the blonde's hand and walked off explaining all the various arcade activities to him pulling him along.

Meanwhile, back at 'the guys'.

"Sonofa bitch! Did you guys see that?" Kiba asked incredulously. Naruto, the 'apparent' socially inept newbie had just successfully wooed a girl and got her to agree into coming to the movies with him! Hell must have frozen over for sure!

Shino nodded, his glasses glinting. "Indeed. He had an odd way of words, but it seemed to have worked. It also helps that the girl he approached is a shinobi."

Shikamaru blinked. "Who? Anyone we know?"

Shino nodded and turned to the green clad boy of 'the guys'. "It's Lee-san's teammate. Tenten-san."

Lee's eyes shone with flames, and he held up his fist eyes glinting with determination. "Yosh! Naruto-kun has successfully wooed my teammate! I will also succeed and have a 'chick' before you know it! Ja ne!" That said, the green clad boy ran off in search of a 'chick'.

Shikamaru sighed and voiced the thoughts of the remainder of 'the guys'.

"Troublesome..."

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Some time later...

Tenten had been kind enough to show Naruto how every arcade game worked and they were currently heading off to reunite with 'the guys'. "So who exactly are your friends, Naruto-kun?" Sometime during Tenten's Tutorial of the arcade, she had started calling him with the '-kun' suffix. Naruto had of course taken note, and like the book suggested, did the same in earnest.

"I think it's possible you may know them, Tenten-chan. They are, after all, also shinobi." The girl walking next to the blonde holding his hand blushed. She still hadn't gotten used to him calling her with the '-chan' suffix. "Oh, who are they?" Well, at least she got rid of the stutter somewhere along the line.

The blonde answered without pause. "There they are right now. You recognize any of them?", he said, pointing in the general direction of 'the guys'.

Tenten scanned the group briefly and nodded. "I know all of the boys. One is my teammate, and the other's are all from the what was the rookie 9 back in the day. Oh, and there's Ino-chan bossing around Sai-san and Sakura-chan hitting Lee."

When they reached the rather sizable group, everyone exchanged introductions and reintroductions and they left the arcade and started walking off toward the cinema's. Naruto briefly scanned the 'chicks' of 'the guys' and realized that only Tenten, Ino,Sakura and one other had any shinobi training. Kiba, Shino and Chouji ended up with civilian 'chicks'. Lee had somehow convinced Sakura to join him for the night, Sai had done the same with Ino apparently. Shikamaru was accompanied by a blonde young girl with odd glasses. Naruto recognized her as Shiho from the decryption and cypher section of the Konoha forces.

"So what does one exactly do at a movie other than watch it?" Naruto directed the question to Sai walking next to him, flanked by Ino at his arm. Sai scratched his chin thoughtfully with his unused hand. "Hmm... I heard Kiba-san mentioning something about doing the 'fake yawn' technique followed by hold the 'chick'. Something along those lines."

Naruto blinked, ignorant of both Ino and Tenten at his side tensing at those words. "How odd. I'm not sure it's wise to follow his advice though Sai-kun. The slap that one girl gave him seemed rather painful when he tried the 'sweet talking' technique."

Sai nodded sagely. "Indeed. I've also learned not to follow his advice after being on the receiving end of one of those when I listened to his advice." Unknown to both boys, Tenten and Ino had relaxed after their short discussion regarding Kiba's advice.

"Good boy, you learn fast, that's good." Ino smirked while patting Sai's head mockingly. Tenten grinned at the display while Naruto rose an eyebrow. The blonde turned his attention to the brunette holding his hand, walking beside him. "You okay, Tenten-chan? You've been rather quiet since we left the arcade." Tenten blinked, and fought a grin at his concerned look. "I'm fine. It's just with the cold wind out tonight, I'm kind of busy regretting not bringing a jacket."

The blonde nodded as if a light bulb went off in his head. The book had mentioned chivalry was revered amongst women. This was a good time to practice that. Without further ado, he placed his finger on a seal hidden by genjutsu on his arm and channeled some chakra into it. A small puff of smoke later a long form fitting jacket appeared on his arm. He took it and held it out with great flourish to Tenten.

After she got over her shock at the supposed summon, she turned and let the blonde slide the jacket onto her slightly shorter frame. She wasn't shorter by much though, probably four inches at best. Tenten smiled gratefully and opted to hold Naruto's arm, while leaning slightly into him this time, instead of his hand while walking the rest of the way.

The blonde grinned slightly when she snuggled into his arm looking content. _'She looks cute. Huh? Since when have I used that word? This night gets stranger and stranger by the second...'_

He turned his attention to the couple walking next to him when he heard Ino scold and lecture Sai. "No you baka. You don't force a grin! You look creepy when you do that, honestly! It's kind of like Orochimaru-teme from the bingo book. Just let it happen- bla bla bla bla, blabla bla bla blaaaaaaa bla bla"

The blonde's eyes crossed, as his other hand massaged his throbbing headache. How could Sai stay in that woman's presence so long without wanting to run away for his life? He shrugged. One of life's many mysteries he supposed. Tenten must have caught on to his discomfort when she tugged at him to walk at the back of the group, away from Ino and Sai. He smiled appreciatively.

They finally reached the cinemas after several more minutes of walk, and proceeded to stare at all the movies showing. Kiba grinned and made an announcement. "We should watch 'Summer midnight'. It looks pretty decent." He chose a romance film, it would seem the Alpha had ideas in his mind.

Shikamaru snorted. "Troublesome, I'd rather watch 'Stuck in time'" A detective slash mystery type of film, the blonde thought.

Lee had other thoughts. "Yosh! Himura Tekenata's 'Flying fist' Looks good! What say you Sakura-chan?" Apparently Lee was an action movie addict, Sakura too if the grin she was trying to hide was anything to say. Geez, violent people these days, Naruto mused to himself.

Kiba frowned. "Hell no! Summer midn-" "Troublesome mutt, just choose something dec-" "Yosh! Let's have a spar to decide which movie to wat-" "Don't be stupid baka! We'll cause a commotion!" "But Sakura-chan!" "This is troublesom-" "Your face is troublesome!" "...Mutt." "HEY!"

Someone coughed and cleared his throat, causing those fighting to stop for a moment.

"Perhaps we should split up. Obviously we all want to watch something different. Let's just go to the movies we want to watch and meet up out here when we're done?" Shino, ever the voice of reason spoke up.

Everyone else nodded and went to pay for their respective choices, leaving only Naruto and Tenten still needing to choose.

Tenten looked up from holding the blonde's arm. "Soooo...? What d'ya wanna watch, Naruto-kun?" she chirped cheerfully.

Naruto frowned thoughtfully. _'The best way to please a woman is by giving her what she wants. As simple as that. That is the golden rule of successful...' Yata yata yata. Hmmm.'_ The blonde looked thoughtfully at Tenten. _'She agreed to come in the first place because it was interesting. At the time I realized she seemed more amused really. Perhaps she enjoy's humorous things?'_

"Would you like to watch the Comedy, Tenten-chan?" When her eyes brightened at the prospect of watching a comedy, Naruto had his answer.

Tenten blushed under the blonde's searching gaze. _'Did he make a lucky guess that I like funny movies? Or is he really that attentive?'_

"I'm not sure. How about you?" She asked slyly. Naruto tilted his head to the side in confusion. "I have no preference really. I've never watched a movie before, other than that time I saw a brief bit of a movie on one of my missions."

With a sigh, the blonde shrugged. "So, I'd rather follow your advice on this matter. You have been most knowledgeable on most aspects I've faced this night. So please, feel free to choose, Tenten-chan."

Tenten gave him a small smile. "Alright, can we please watch the comedy then?", she asked with what Naruto would later learn is called the 'puppy-dog-eyes' look.

Naruto twitched slightly. _'Odd, why do I have the sudden urge to do anything in my power for Tenten-chan that she asks of me?' _The blonde decided to ponder that oddity later when not in Tenten's company, after all, the book had said you were supposed to give your full undivided attention to the woman while with her.

"Of course Tenten-chan. Let's get the tickets."

After they bought the tickets the joined the others in the queue to buy snacks for the movie. Naruto turned to Sai in front of him. "Sai-kun, what would one buy from the booth this queue leads to?"

Sai scratched his chin thoughtfully. "At first I had thought roasted chicks, but Ino-chan cleared that up for me. Apparently they sell commodities called popcorn and soda. Good refreshments for during the movie I'm told."

"Baka!" Ino smacked Sai on his shoulder. "Of course they're good. Nothing like popcorn while watching an action film!" She turned to Tenten. "What are you guys watching by the way?"

Tenten gave her a small grin. "Kunita and Kenuta. A comedy, I've seen the trailer of it, and it looks pretty good. I didn't really think you'd go for an action film though, Ino-chan. At the sleepovers you're always the one suggesting we get romance films for the night."

Ino's cheeks puffed up indignantly. "Just because I like movies from the romance genre, doesn't mean I can't like action movies too! Besides, big explosion, big buildings and cars, are all cool on the big screens with surround sound."

Tenten and Naruto shared an amused look when Ino proceeded to lecture Sai on the importance of good popcorn taste.

"Naruto-kun." The blonde turned behind him and saw Chouji with his date for the evening. "Hai, Chouji-kun?" The bulky boy grinned at the blonde. "I take it this will be your first time trying movie refreshments, much like soda, yeah?"

Naruto nodded. "Hai, I'm still a bit confused as to what exactly they sell here." Chouji nodded sympathetically. "Well, there's not really all that much to it when it concerns refreshments. There's three basic things at any movie refreshment's stand. Popcorn, drink and candy."

The blonde nodded seriously and gestured for Chouji to continue, not noting the amused glances Tenten, and Chouji's date where shooting them. "Popcorn is a base food, hardened corn that's been heated. The base alone doesn't taste very good, but with the right spices and mixes you can make something that tastes pretty good. Like butter, salt, salt and vinegar, garlic and cheddar and a large selection of other spices."

Sometime during his lecture, Naruto and Sai that had started listening, both flipped out a notepad each and started making notes.

Tenten turned to Ino, eyebrow raised. "Why... are they writing this stuff down?" she asked incredulously. Ino grinned in response. "Well... Naruto is about as socially inept at Sai, and Sai you should more or less know the reason for. This kind of stuff is still new to both of 'em. It's kinda like learning a new jutsu to them." Ino finished with a giggle, causing Tenten to grin.

"Now then..." Chouji said, pointing his finger upwards, holding the air of a lecturer. "I've already explained the workings of Soda to you, so you should have no problem with that. Candy is an entirely different matter, and it takes honed skills to know what to pick and choose."

Both Naruto and Sai looked at Chouji awed. Clearly the Akamichi was a genius of a calibre they couldn't hope to match. "This specific theatre stand only sells two types of candy, BUT! Take note, even though there are only two types, they still come in many different kinds of flavor. The two types they sell is... chocolate and sugar based candy..."

"Oooh!" "Aaah!" Sai and Naruto, 'Ooohed' and 'Aaahed' respectively, then proceeded to jott down more notes.

"Chocolate comes in different shades of flavor because they are made differently. Like normal chocolate, it's dark brown in color, and has cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions mixed with sugar."

Chouji scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Then there is white chocolate. It's white in color, obviously, and contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids."

Naruto tilted his head to the side. "So... which is more healthy of the two?" Chouji smirked at that. "From recent research, it's dark brown chocolate. Apparently there's antioxidants in it that reduce the formation of free radicals. So it's pretty healthy I guess."

Several of the girls of 'the guys' were listening to Chouji with rapt attention, this wasn't something they knew. What he mentioned next however, made them lose interest pretty quickly. "And then... there's sugar based candy. A confection created from concentrated solutions of sugar in water, then afterwards, a variety of different colorants and flavorants are added to make it taste more interesting. Stuff like gummy bears, marshmellows, jelly and sugar based ice cream."

The Akamichi scratched his head sheepishly. "But... this cinema only sells gummy bears so the rest is kind of pointless." Naruto nodded with a grin. "Thanks Chouji-kun. That was most helpful. I think I understand now." Which he didn't really.

Eventually the blonde and his company for the night reached the stand. Tenten asked for a box of popcorn with 'the works' and a grape beverage. The blonde turned to the girl working at the booth. "I'd like... popcorn." The girl nodded. "And what toppings would you like?" The blonde scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I'd like it flavored with... pocky."

The girl working at the booth looked gob smacked at the blonde. "Uh... we don't have that... sir." The blonde sighed miserably. It would seem a lot of places in Konoha were blasphemous in their trades. No pocky?! Madness! "I'll have the same as Tenten-chan then."

Later, after the movie.

While watching the movie, Naruto had been somewhat confused when the surrounding people laughed for no reason at all. That is, until he started paying his full attention to the movie, hopefully Tenten-chan wouldn't mind the brief lapse in attention. And so, the more of the movie the blonde watched, the more he grew amused at the humorous interactions. Eventually near the end of the movie he had at least let out a few small chuckles.

Currently they were all heading in the direction of a restaurant that had been agreed upon unanimously.

While walking, Naruto took note of Tenten shooting him looks of sadness when she thought he wasn't looking. He slowed his pace until they were at the back where they couldn't be overheard. After all, the book had said women value privacy where necessary.

"What's wrong Tenten-chan?" he asked in a low voice, looking at her with concern. The girl in question winced. "Nothing, it's fine." The blonde blinked. This seemed somewhat odd. Obviously something was wrong if the looks she shot him had anything to say.

He sighed. Not knowing what to do in this situation. "What's wrong Tenten-chan? You've seemed... sad?... since we left the cinemas."

The girl in question blushed and looked at the ground. "You didn't enjoy yourself. I'm sorry I chose a bad movie." Naruto stopped walking, causing Tenten to look at him in confusion. "What do you mean Tenten-chan? I found it quite humorous and amusing. I... enjoyed myself... honestly."

The brunette bit her lip thoughtfully. "Really? You weren't really laughing so I thought..." The blonde smiled at her. _'Such a kind person. Showing concern to me when it isn't necessary.'_

"I'm not sure I know how to laugh Tenten-chan. I've spent a good portion of my life in ANBU, so I'm still busy learning this social interaction stuff. Forgive me for causing you unnecessary concern."

Tenten giggled in response. "You're forgiven!" she chirped happily and retook her place at his arm.

Eventually the group reached the restaurant and all got seated at a rather large table that took the group of fourteen people.

"So... how was everyone's movies?" Kiba asked... eloquently.

Shikamaru snorted. "Troublesome... Me and Shiho had the murderer figured out before half the movie was over. The plot was pretty good though." Shiho, sitting next to Shikamaru nodded and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Yes, it was rather simple really. You just need to know what to look for. Underneath the underneath so to speak. Though, Shikamaru-kun managed to figure it out before me" She admitted with a small blush.

Kiba blinked. "What about you guys, Sai, Lee?"

Sai blinked. "I've learned that the civllians that direct these films have little or no knowledge concerning true taijutsu." Ino bonked him on the head. "Baka! It's not supposed to be authentic. It's about the plot, remember?"

Lee almost jumped on the table when Sakura grabbed him and pulled him back into his chair. He smiled sheepishly at Sakura when she shot him a glare as if saying 'behave'. "Yosh! It was a hip film that brought tears to my eyes at it's youthfulness!" Sakura sitting next to Lee sighed and shook her head exasperated.. "Lee... What am I going to do with you?"

"What about you two, Naruto-kun?" Kiba asked the blonde. Most of the groups attention turned to the blonde who shrugged. "It was... amusing. Though I wonder if such situations that I saw in the film would actually happen in real life." Tenten sitting next to the blonde smirked. "It wasn't that bad, the lady sitting in front of us shrieked and had a conniption fit while chasing her children out of the theatre. Apparently she didn't approve of the two male protagonists waking up naked on a beach."

Eventually it came to where everyone had to place their orders. "What would you like sir?" The waitress asked the blonde ex-ANBU in a professional tone.

"I would like... banana flavored pocky." Everyone at the table gaped at the blonde when he placed his order so seriously. The waitress sweat dropped. "Sir... we don't serve that here."

Naruto nodded seriously. "In that case... " Everyone looked nervously at the blonde, what would he ask for instead of pocky?

"I would like... Chocolate flavored pocky." Several of those on the table fell to the ground with sweat drops.

"Sir... We don't serve pocky here. At all." Naruto sighed and looked at an amused Tenten searchingly. "What would you suggest I get, Tenten-chan?"

Tenten bit her lip thoughtfully. "Well, the miso soup is pretty good, as is the miso ramen." The blonde nodded and ordered a miso ramen.

Everyone kept themselves busy with idle banter while they waited for their food to come. Eventually it came, and with a round of 'Itadakimasu' from everyone at the table, they begun eating.

Naruto warily looked into the bowl of noodles and broth and looked at Tenten for help. The girl in question giggled when the blonde looked at her. The look on his face was almost pathetic, it looked so out of place for him. With a gentle smile, she took the chopsticks next to his bowl of ramen broke them apart and held some ramen to his lips.

"Just try it Naruto-kun. It won't bite, trust me. Say 'aaah'" Naruto unknowingly pouted. He wasn't a baby, heaven knows he spent enough time feeding children when he was still genin. With a sigh he opened his mouth and accepted the warm noodles into his mouth. Slowly he started chewing the ramen, until several seconds later he froze, with his eyes wide open.

Tenten grew concerned when he stopped moving, and gently shook him on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Naruto-kun? You kinda stopped moving there."

Naruto looked incredulously into the bowl of ramen in front of him. This... this... divine edible, tasted on par with the great pocky! But how could that be possible? Only pocky was the greatest, so how could this 'ramen' rate so closely? The blonde swallowed the ramen and sighed blisfully.

"Naruto-kun?"

The blonde looked up from his ramen and into Tenten's eyes, his own glazed over. "Surely ramen was sent down from the heavens above by Kami-sama himself!"

The brunette giggled and returned to her own meal. The rest of the night went rather well, excluding the occasional verbal abuse Sai suffered, the occasional physical abuse Lee suffered and the playful banter between the others.

When they finished up for the night they all headed off with 'goodbye's'. The girl's being walked home. Naruto also found himself in such a situation. Eventually though, they reached Tenten's home.

"Thanks for the wonderful night Naruto-kun, I really enjoyed myself." Tenten said looking at Naruto with both a small blush and smile. The blonde returned the smile. "I enjoyed myself also Tenten-chan. Thank you for being so patient with me. I learned a great a deal."

The wind blew slightly, Tenten shuddered. "Well I better get in..." she seemed nervous for some reason the blonde noted. "What's wrong, Tenten-chan? You seem nervous."

Tenten looked up at the blonde and blushed. Her eyes visibly grew determined. _'Oh, Screw it.'_

With that thought, Tenten stepped forward wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck and brushed her lips to his and held it for several seconds longer than needed. Slowly she withdrew from the blonde and noticed the glazed look in his eyes that she also seemed to have. She squeaked out a quick 'good bye' and entered her home and closed the door blushing madly._ 'I can't believe I did that.' _she thought resisting the urge to bang her head against the door. Silently she made her way up the stairs to her bedroom, blush still full blast on her face. She had a new diary entry to make it seemed.

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Meanwhile, outside Tenten's house.

_'What was that?' _the socially inept blonde thought, gently brushing his fingers where her lips had touched his, ignorant of his red tinted cheeks. '_It felt... pleasant and nice. I'll have to ask Sai about this strange phenomenon tomorrow.'_

"I hope Sai-kun can explain this."

That said, the blonde teleported to his new temporary residence.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

'Knock knock'

Tsunade been busy walking from the kitchen, having just fetched a snack, on her way to the living room when she heard a knock at the door. She opened the door to find her godson, back from wherever he's been for the day.

"Hello Naruto-kun. Busy day?"

The blonde entered and nodded after having closed the door. "Hai Tsunade-hime. But only until late this afternoon. I had... 'fun', was it? For the rest of the day."

"Oh?" The blonde kage asked surprised, motioning for her fellow blonde to follow her. "What were you up to?"

Naruto blinked at her interest. Odd, perhaps it was simply because she was his Hokage that she showed such interest. It's not like she was secretly his grandmother or godmother or something right? Yeap, that had it be it. Just a concerned Hokage is all. Nothing to worry about.

"I 'hung out' with 'the guys'." Tsunade blinked in surprise. She didn't know he knew such casual expressions. Did he learn them during the day? Possibly.

"And? What were you all up to? Who are these guys by the way?"

Naruto took a seat on the couch next to the one Tsunade sat on, facing her. "I'm certain you know them, Tsunade-hime. Inuzuka Kiba, Abarume Shino, Nara Shikamaru, Akamichi Chouji, Rock Lee and Sai."

Both of Tsunade's eyebrows rose at that. How curious that he would get acquainted with those of his age so quickly. "Yes, I know them. What were you all up to for the day?"

The blonde ex-ANBU blinked. "In Kiba-kun's words, we went to the 'arcade to pick up chicks for the flicks.'"

Tsunade snorted at that. Yes, that definitely sounded like something that knucklehead would say. "I see. And what exactly happened? From what I know of Kiba, things don't usually go exactly as planned." She giggled at Naruto's grimace.

"Quite" Naruto recollected the day's memories. "We went to the arcade, Chouji-san introduced me to a new beverage called soda. Not quite as good as pocky, but it sufficed. We drew straws to decide who would be first to 'pick up' someone. Kiba-kun went in first, and came back with a slap imprint on his face." Here Tsunade let out a bark of a laughter. "Sai-kun went next, and made the mistake of going after the girl Kiba-kun had already been rejected from and also returned with a slap mark."

By now Tsunade was laughing aloud, Jiraiya joining her, having heard from the doorway. Jiraiya took a seat next to Tsunade. "And then what happened?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Well... Chouji-kun went next and managed to succeed where Kiba-kun and Sai-kun failed. Kiba seemed really upset. I think it hurt his pride."

Tsunade had tears of mirth running down her face while chuckling, Jiraiya wasn't much better off either. "A-and then?"

The blonde leaned back slightly into the couch. "I went next." Both Jiraiya and Tsunade's eyebrows just about disappeared into their hairlines. "Yeah, and?" The white haired pervert asked curiously, already thinking of many dirty scenarios the blonde could have gone through.

"I made small talk with a girl that I'd noticed was a skilled kunoichi. When I commented on her weapons throwing form she seemed to think I was talking about something else. I wonder what though..." he trailed of thoughtfully. Tsunade snickered, unbelieving of how clueless the blonde was while Jiraiya wiped away a tear of pride. Perhaps his godson wasn't as hopeless as he thought at first.

"Anyway, what happened next?" Tsunade asked.

"Ah. I managed to get her to agree to join us for the night to go to the cinemas. Though it wasn't quite time to go yet, so I asked her to give me a tutorial on all the arcade games." Naruto explained. Then, as an afterthought. "She's good at explaining such things. There wasn't a single thing she taught me that I didn't understand."

Unknown the Naruto, Jiraiya had grinned slightly when he mentioned that. "Oh? What happened next? What else did she... 'teach' you?" he finished grinning lecherously.

The blonde ex-ANBU shrugged. "When the time came we met up and introduced ourselves and our companions to one another. Lee-kun had managed to convince Sakura-san to go with him. Sai-kun with Ino-san. Shikamaru with Shiho-san. And the rest of the guys all went with civilians."

Tsunade grinned a predator-like grin, such lovely, lovely blackmail for her to exploit. Now for the biggest blackmail of them all, she would get to tease Naruto mercilessly. "And who was the girl you went with? You never told me her name." Naruto blinked. "Oh, her name is Shuuzou Tenten"

Jiraiya and Tsunade now wore identical fox-like grins. "Do continue, what happened next, Naruto-kun?" Jiraiya asked smirking.

"We went to the cinema's. On the way I noticed Tenten-chan seemed more quiet than when we initially talked to one another. Upon questioning her, I realized that she wasn't conditioned to live in arctic weather with little clothing like I am, so I offered her a jacket I kept in a storage seal."

Tsunade snorted. "Tenten'-CHAN' huh? You sure work fast kid." Naruto blinked. "I... have no idea what you're talking about Tsunade-hime. Are you referring to how fast I learn new things?"

Tsunade sighed, it would be a good while before she figured out how to properly tease the young blonde it seemed. Ah well. She still had the other's to tease. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Jiraiya writing in his notebook with a lecherous grin, drool escaping his lips slightly. Her eyebrow twitched. "BAKA-ERO!" "Itai!"

Tsunade ignored the twitching and writhing form of Jiraiya and motion for the blonde to continue.

"Then we arrived at the cinema's where Kiba, Shikamaru and Lee had a small argument over what to watch. Shino-kun broke it up when we got us all to agree to watch whatever movie we liked. Kiba-kun and Chouji-kun took their company for the evening to watch a romance film. Lee-kun and Sai-kun watched action an action film with their company. Shino-kun and Shikamaru-kun and their company chose a mystery, detective film."

Tsunade chuckled slightly. "Who'd have thought, Sakura liking an action film? To think I thought she'd go for a romance with all those novella's I catch her reading." She shook her head. "Anyway, what did you and your... date-" Both Tsunade and the quickly recovered Jiraiya smirked. "choose to watch?"

The blonde frowned thoughtfully. "I had no real preference so I suggested a Comedy, seeing as Tenten-chan seemed to enjoy anything funny or amusing from what I got to know of her during the evening. So we chose that."

The white haired sannin nodded thoughtfully. "Curious choice. Anyway, what happened next?"

Naruto sighed dreamily. "We went to a restaurant and Tenten-chan introduced me to the wonder that is known as ramen. I had no idea a food that tasted so divine other than pocky existed." His eyes glazed over slightly when he thought of the food.

Jiraiya and Tsunade sweat dropped. _'Just like Minato and Kushina, those two loved ramen like no other.'_

When Jiraiya poked him with a stick he dug up... somewhere, Naruto continued. "After dinner we exchanged good bye's and everyone walked their company for the evening home."

Here both the sannin grinned. "And...? What happened."

The blonde frowned. "I'm... not sure."

Tsunade rose a curious eyebrow. "Oh? Do explain."

Naruto looked up with what both sannin had to squint at with chakra enhanced eyes, to see a blush. "Well... Right after we exchanged good bye's Tenten seemed somewhat nervous, when I asked her if anything was wrong... she.."

Tsunade and Jiraiya were on the edges of their seats now. "She what Naruto-kun?" Tsunade asked anxiously.

"She wrapped her arms around my neck and brushed her lips against mine." The blonde admitted scratching the back of his head, his previously miniscule blush a bit more prominent now.

Jiraiya grinned lecherously and Tsunade seemed to gain a small smile on her face. "She did? And, what do you think?"

The blonde shrugged. "I'm... not sure. It was pleasant... whatever it is she did. Could either of you please explain what she did to me?"

Tsunade sighed, while Jiraiya vowed to show Naruto the way of the pervert. The young blonde seemed to have never been given any affectionate gestures. Both sannin realized that they really screwed up when they turned their back on the village for so many years. Too late to mourn about that now. Both decided right there and then to help the clueless blonde before them in any way they possibly could to at least try and make up for his pitiful life.

Tsunade spoke up. "She kissed you Naruto-kun."

Naruto's eyes widened in confusion. "But, but... why?"

Tsunade felt her heart break and go out for the poor blonde. He looked so hopeless and fragile.

The blonde Kage sighed, she really wished she could hug and comfort the blonde, but he might question it and she had no right to do so in their current relationship. It would have to wait until both she and Jiraiya were ready to tell Naruto of his parentage. "From what you've told us, she seems to be really fond of you Naruto-kun. When a girl likes a boy and is fond of them, they do things like that."

A small smile graced Naruto's face. "I see... Thank you for clearing this up for me Tsunade-hime. I appreciate it."

Tsunade grinned broadly and stood up to ruffle the blonde's hair affectionately and turned to go get a glass of water. "No problem kiddo."

"Soo..." Jiraiya started, perverted grin in place. "You want one of my books? It will teach you everything you need to know about the pleasuring of the woman? Heh? Heh? You know you want to."

The blonde stared oddly at the book offered to him. For some reason he felt tempted to take the book and read it. Wait... no! He was being tempted by the devil! The perverted-devil anyway.. But still, THE devil! The blonde snorted he would not fall for such petty tricks. Obviously the perverted sannin wanted him castrated.

"Sorry Jiraiya-sama. My self preservation instincts are telling me to stay away from anything you offer me. Ja Ne" With that, the blonde waved and walked up the stairs. He would need his rest. Tomorrow he had to train until he reached his limits and break past them again.

Jiraiya sat still for a while before speaking aloud. "Looks like you've got competion Haku-chan, Shizune-chan."

He heard two squeaks coming from behind the nearby closed door. It slowly creaked open. Shizune being the first to speak. "I-it's not what it l-looks like Jiraiya-sama. We didn't wish to interrupt anything serious, t-that's all."

Jiraiya smirked at the two and stood up. "Yeeeeeeeah, sure. I believe you." He said sarcastically. "Well I'm off to go do a bit more research for the day. See you two tomorrow. G'nite!" In a puff of smoke the white haired pervert was gone.

Shizune's eyebrow twitched showing her annoyance. "I really wish Tsunade-Okaa-san would tell us the REAL reason ero-sennin is staying here as a guest. He has an apartment... somewhere... I think."

Haku grinned playfully. "He's not that bad... Actually, nevermind. He just tried corrupting Naruto-san, despite Okaa-san's threats."

Shizune smirked evilly. "You want to hide his 'research notes' and make it look like an unfortunate accident happened to them?

Haku's grin turned fox-like. "Sounds like fun, Shizu-nee-chan."

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Holy shit that took a lot out of my brain! You people damn well better be pleased I wrote such a long chapter. Review, seriously. I'm not adding subliminal messages during my fics for no reason. I'm not gonna be a dick and stop writing if you don't review. Nah, hell no. I'm just honestly curious what your thoughts on the fic is so far. I mean your genuine, genuine thoughts. Like anything you find amusing, crap, utter crap, annoying, etc. etc. Please! For the love of all things shiny, tell me these things! I'd really appreciate it.

Anyway, that Review Rant done. (RR ) I do hope you at least enjoyed this chapter slightly if not a little bit. Thanks for reading, I'll try to update again when I have time.

Bye, bye.

T.M.

P.S. Yes, Tenten will be a possible ship in the future. Let's just say, I've read some of the NaruTen fics on ff(dot)net and found them wholly lacking and inadequate.

Edit: Yeah, I editted this chapter. Few alterations, more dialogue, more depth, etc. Etc. Just pointing it out. I'd like to thank Amil0408 for pointing out some flaws for me, hopefully I fixed most of em. At least SOMEONE has the guts to do so. ;P


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

_Inside shinobi and civilian trading sector, Konoha. The next day._

Throughout his entire life, Naruto had yet to really feel anger. As in, genuine, genuine anger. So, because he scarcely got angered, his subconscious had to compensate and at least provide emotions or moods similar, to that of anger. These moods, would usually come to grace the young blonde's usually stoic face in varying different shades of facial expressions.

Such as, an indifferent frown for example. Usually this meant someone was going to die in a very horrible and painful way. Luckily for the citizens of Konoha, the blonde had already taken out 'most' of his 'anger' on poor defenseless rocks and trees.

Now one might wonder what could have possibly peeved off the blonde enough, to go ballistic on the flora of Konoha proper. And the answer would be rather simple. His **katana**.

On Naruto's list of most important things in life, only three things are lucky enough to grace the top of his list of attention. The third being, pocky. The second being, his recent and most joyous discovery, ramen.

And coming in first of course, was training. After having spent some of his early life under Danzo's 'loving care', Naruto had quickly come to realize that those that held the most power, lived the most comfortably. This played a big role in his quick advancement through the ranks and how quickly he grew in terms of power. Initially he had grown stronger for the sole purpose of annihilating Danzo, but that was taken care of on its own, when the blonde had shown the Sandaime incriminating documents at the time. Currently, Danzo was worm food, six feet under... and his old 'Roots', were now under the control of the elder council and Hokage.

To Naruto, his **katana**, meant strength and power. The blonde respected power and used it cautiously. So it went without saying, that he had a phrase that he followed firmly. _'Power does not corrupt men. It is men, when in the position of power, that corrupt it.'_

To put it bluntly, the blonde's sword got scratched somewhere along the lines of his intense training regime. And of course, because he respected power so much; seeing that small scratch, caused the blonde to go bat-shit crazy on his training ground.

Right now, he was on his way to his favored weapon smithy to have his blade fixed up. He idly read the sign for the shop, 'Souzousha's Superior Shinobi needs', and proceeded inside.

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As the blonde entered the weapon shop, he idly took note of all the weapons adorning the walls and shelves, and realized he was the only customer there. Naruto walked up to the empty counter where he noticed the shopkeeper.

The old shopkeeper took notice of the blonde and smiled at him. "Hello, how may I help you?" Naruto returned the smile, after all, it was only polite to do so, at least according to the 'book'. "Hello, Souzousha-san. I've come to have my blade repaired. It got damaged... somehow."

The older man rose an eyebrow at the blonde's familiarity with him, only to raise his other eyebrow when the blonde placed his blade on the counter. Souzousha gaped as he studied the blade. His eyes shot up into the blonde's cerulean orb's. "Kitsune? Is that you?"

At the blonde's nod the old timer grinned crookedly. "Well I'll be! I haven't heard hide or hair of you for almost a month now! Now you turn up here without your mask? Spill kid, spill!"

The blonde's shoulders slumped as he let out a sigh. "I'm sorry for not coming sooner Souzousha-san, I've been really swamped with work, both on the field and office paperwork for the last few months."

The scarred man nodded. "Well... that certainly explains your absence from my wonderfully superior shop. But why aren't you wearing your mask though?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched slightly, signifying his very slight annoyance. "Tsunade-sama has seen fit to... relinquish.. me of my rank as ANBU Commander. I now rank as an elite jounin."

Souzousha smirked at the blonde's annoyance. "Yeah? Did she let you know why she did that?" The blonde sighed and mumbled something incoherent. "Sorry, what was that? Speak up, kid."

The blonde glared at the older man. "She said I need to, in her own words, 'take some time off'. And don't you dare say it." he finished with a growl.

Souzousha's smirk turned fox-like. "I don't know what you're talking about, and I hate to tell you this kid, but-" "Souzousha!" "I told you sooo!" The weapon smithy crowed in delight.

Naruto's eyebrow was twitching overtime. _'Ten.. Nine.. Eight..' _

The ex-ANBU let out a sigh and looked tiredly at the male brunette. "Anyway. Could you please take a look at Kuragari's(Darkness) damage?"

Souzousha stared critically at the blade for several seconds before he gave a nod. "Nothing critical, but the scratch could screw up with the aerodynamics of the blade. Usually this would take several days, but... because I like you... give me until afternoon to have it fixed up."

Naruto nodded gratefully. "Thank you Souzousha-san, I owe you."

The older male grinned toothily. "You bet your ass you do! To make up for it, you're going to join me on 'poker night'!"

The blonde rose an eyebrow curiously. "Poker night? Whose going?"

The scarred man tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well... Chouza is definitely coming... Shikato might skip out, the lazy bastard. good fer nuthin' _grumble grumble_... Inoichi should be coming, provided his wife is not keeping him on a leash again... Gai... if he promises to behave. Damned weirdo."

The blonde's jaw lowered slightly. "Those guys?" he asked incredulously.

Souzousha snorted. "Yeah, yeah, I know. They aren't so hot with poker. But it's still free cash to score from them, eh?"

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention. Kakashi should probably come if he's up to it, you never know with that guy. But! We've got a real treat this coming poker night. Guess whose coming?!"

Naruto scratched the back of his head lazily. "Hm... Hmm..." The blonde's eyes shot open and he looked intently at Souzousha. "I..."

Souzousha grinned in anticipation. "Yeees?"

"I dunno." he said scratching the back of his head sheepishly causing the older man to sweat drop.

"It's Ibiki kid."

Naruto's eyes widened significantly. "Really? Him? Pale-face-Poker Ibiki himself?"

At Souzousha's nod the blonde slowly started grinning. "Curious. It should be quite an entertaining night then."

"Great, it's going to be this coming Friday night, we're holding it at the jounin lounge. 1900 hours."

Naruto nodded and memorized the time and location. Souzousha smirked nostalgically. "Ah yes... I can't wait-" "I'm heading out Otou-san!" A feminine voice interrupted the weapon smithy.

Both males turned to the new occupant of the room. "Where you headed, Ten-chan?" the older male asked.

Tenten smiled at her Father, having not noticed the other male in the room yet. "Gai-sensei told us to meet up with him at our training ground. He said he had something important to tell us."

Souzousha nodded, not really paying attention, having lost his attention when she mentioned the word 'Gai'.

Tenten turned to walk out of the store, but froze when she noticed the blonde. Her eyes widened in surprize. "N-naruto-kun?"

Naruto smiled at the brunette girl. "Hai. Good morning, Tenten-chan. How are you?"

The chocolate eyed girl gaped at how casually the blonde had spoken with her. _'Isn't he nervous about last night?'_

"Um.. Fine thanks. What are you doing here?"

The blonde rose an eyebrow. "This is a weapon shop, Tenten-chan. I'm here to have my weapon repaired." Tenten sweat dropped.

Souzousha rose an eyebrow. "Hm? You two know eachother?"

Tenten shot the blonde a nervous look, which he didn't seem to notice. "Hai. We went to the cinemas with several other 'friends' last night, Souzousha-san."

The older male smirked. "Oh really? So is this that 'nice boy' you were with last night, Ten-chan? You didn't stop thinking about him until you went to bed. I would have never have guessed you two knew each other." his grin turned lecherous.

The brown haired girl glared at Souzousha, her eyes clearly conveying the message, 'we'll talk later'. Before she grabbed Naruto by his hand and dragged him out the store.

XxX-Review my minions!-XxX

Once outside, Tenten dragged the poor blonde behind her for several blocks before she started walking at a normal pace again. Naruto blinked at the odd actions.

"Tenten-chan?"

"Hmmm?" Inwardly Tenten was berating herself for treating Naruto like that, as she knew she could have handled the situation better.

"Are you alright? You seem... flustered."

The brunette rolled her eyes playfully at the blonde. "No... you think? I'm sorry about that Naruto-kun, but my Otou-san is really... annoying sometimes. Especially whenever I mention a boy's name in front of him. I think he gets his kicks off embarrassing me, I guess."

She looked at the blonde cutely, adorable pout in place. "Forgive me?"

Naruto unknowingly adopted a smile. "You're forgiven." He blinked. Odd. _'What on earth just happened? One moment she's speaking to me, the next I realize I'm forgiving her for some odd reason. Genjutsu?'_

Tenten, completely oblivious to the blonde's thoughts, returned the smile. "Great!" she chirped happily.

"So... where are you taking me, Tenten-chan?"

The brunette blinked. She had been so busy having fun with the blonde, that she hadn't realized she was still dragging him along her.

"Oops. I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun. I'm going to my training ground to hear Gai-sensei's instructions. I didn't mean to drag you with me. " She said apologetically. The blonde shrugged. "It's fine, really. I don't have much to do while waiting for my sword to be repaired anyway. I can come with if you'd like?"

Tenten beamed at the blonde. "That'd be great! It's always such a drag waiting for Gai-sensei and Lee to show up. Neji's the only company I have while waiting, and he's a stuck up jerk, so it's pretty annoying waiting for Gai-sensei."

The blonde nodded and allowed Tenten to lead him for the remainder of their journey to team Gai's training grounds.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

When the two arrived at the training ground they were greeted by the sight of two green demons unleashing their fury upon the world. Oh wait, never mind. Just Gai and Lee.

Gai noticed Tenten walking into the clearing holding a blonde boy's hand. He grinned, causing his teeth to glint ten out of a scale of ten, temporarily blinding several people in the clearing.

"Tenten-chan, it's good to see you brought your youthful self to this meeting! Who is this youthful friend of yours you've brought along?"

Tenten blushed slightly under the gazes of her teammates. "This is Uzumaki Naruto guys. Naruto-kun, this is Gai-sensei. You met Lee yesterday, and that's Hyuuga Neji skulking over there." She said pointing where mentioned.

Gai grinned his own custom megawatt smile before standing up from where he was arm wrestling Lee. "Excellent, excellent! Now then, as for why I've called you here my beautiful students... I'm afraid there won't be any training on Saturday morning like usual."

Lee almost broke down in tears. "But Gai-sensei! What could possibly make you miss our training?"

Gai turned to Lee in his 'good guy' pose and grinned. "Fear not my student, it is nothing to worry yourself about! I just believe I'll be needing that time to recover from Friday night!"

Neji scoffed. "What could possibly exhaust YOU of all people enough to skip training?"

"Poker."

Everyone of team Gai turned to the blonde that had spoken. Lee being the most vocal. "What do you mean my most youthful rival?"

Naruto blinked. "I'm going to Poker-night this Friday. I had heard that you might be joining us Gai-san. Is that true?"

The green clad man smiled at the blonde. "Yes! You are correct Naruto-san! I must go there to beat my most youthfully hip rival, Kakashi! I did not think you'd be joining us however! I've never seen you there before if I recall correctly."

The blonde nodded. "I was present in several of those nights, Gai-san. I was wearing my ANBU mask then."

Gai's eyes widened in understanding. "Ah! I see! So YOU're that ex-ANBU that Tsunade-sama made elite jounin?" At the blonde's nod, the younger members of Team Gai's eyes widened slightly. And in Neji's case he blinked. In a slow cool way. Cold 'icepick-in-the-ass' Hyuugas were like that.

It was surprising for the members of team Gai, because it was incredibly rare for someone to achieve Jounin, much less, Elite jounin at such a young age. Neji himself had after all only become a rookie jounin because his bloodline saved him from powerful genjutsu's that would have indirectly caused his death otherwise. Having the Kaiten as an absolute defensive also helped by a large margin.

"Well then my cute pupils, that shall be all! I must go prepare for my Poker night by practising my bluffing skills in front of the mirror! Good bye!" And in a puff of smoke, Gai was gone. Lee quickly followed in his footsteps, howling something about 'learning the ways of the poker to beat his hip rival Naruto-kun'...

When it was clear Gai and Lee had left, Neji turned to the blonde, completely ignoring Tenten's presence. "You... Uzumaki right?"

The blonde nodded, not sure where this was headed.

"Fight me."

Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Hmm?"

"Fight me."

His head tilted to the other side. "Hmmmm?"

"I said, fight me, you commoner."

Naruto blinked owlishly while Tenten sighed. "Why? Are you defecting from Konoha?"

The young Hyuuga prodigy growled at the blonde. "No, I meant a spar."

The blonde nodded, finally understanding. "Why?"

Tenten sighed and tugged at the blonde's arm. "Just forget it Naruto-kun, he's always like this."

Not knowing any better, Naruto nodded and allowed Tenten to drag him off.

"It seems that my assumptions of you being strong were false. You must be weak, to let such a weakling as Tenten drag you off like that."

The blonde froze in his spot, barely noting Tenten's concerned look and wince at the comment. He would not let that comment slide so easily. Sai's book had said something about defending 'your womans' honor. That, and he felt annoyed that Tenten would let the Hyuuga call her weak like that and not do anything about it. He felt... protective?... of her._ 'Why do I feel this way? I must consult my wise advisor, Sai-kun, on this matter later today.'_

Slowly the blonde turned around and faced the Hyuuga, his usually stoic eyes glinting coldly. "You wished for a spar, Hyuuga-san?"

Neji smirked victoriously. It would seem he would be able to grind that 'foolish blonde' into the ground to show who was truly superior after all. "Hai. I'd like to see how a commoner matches up against the power of a Hyuuga."

Naruto nodded lazily. "And if any harm should come to you during this... spar?"

The proud Hyuuga's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I won't be harmed, so your concern is unnecessary. But in the unlikely event that I am... injured... rest assured I wont hold it against you."

_'Not likely' _Tenten thought with a sweat drop.

Naruto nodded and walked out onto the field opposite the Hyuuga. "When you're ready... Hyuuga-san."

Neji smirked and settled into the gentle fist stance and waited for the blonde to make a move.

No luck however. Naruto just stood there staring at the proud Hyuuga, not showing the least bit of interest in their fight.

After several more minutes of pointless staring, Neji grew annoyed and charged the blonde head on, Byuakugan activated. When he neared the blonde, he thrust his chakra laden fingers out to strike the blonde with lightning quick speed, smirking when he thought he caught the blonde off guard.

Neji's and Tenten's eyes widened in surprise when the blonde lazily slapped the Jyuuken strike away, clearly not paying any attention to it. The Hyuuga glared at the blonde and attempted several more quick strikes only to receive the same resulting slap each time.

The silken haired boy growled at the blonde. "Stop mocking me, and FIGHT me!"

The blonde shrugged, staring at the Hyuuga through half-lidded eyes. "Very well..."

The blonde standing before Neji morphed until what looked like hundreds of eagle's flew out of the shape that he was before.

Neji's gaze turned murderous._ 'Impossible! It can't be genjutsu, because the Byukugan can't be fooled by any genjutsu!'_

"Oi. Over here." The Hyuuga's eyes widened in panic as he turned to where he heard the blonde's voice._ 'He was hiding in my blind spot? But... how could he have possibly known where it was?'_

There Naruto stood in all his glory with an eagle perched on his shoulder, calmly munching a stick of pocky. Neji frowned, what the... Did that idiot just give that bird a piece of pocky? Can eagle's even eat that stuff?? No matter, he had a blonde idiot to kill- defeat, he quickly amended.

With that thought in mind, the Hyuuga prodigy charged the blonde head on. "Die! Eight Trigrams- Sixy four palms!"

"Four strikes!"

"Eight strikes!"

"Sixteen strikes !"

"Thirty two strikes!"

"Sixty four strikes!"

With his final thrust, The blonde fell to the ground groaning in pain. Neji grinned victoriously, and turned off his byakugan. "Hmph. A weakling after all."

The blonde laying on the ground rose an eyebrow and pointed behind the Hyuuga. Neji turned around and gaped when he saw Naruto standing right next to Tenten. The blonde in question waved cheerily at the Hyuuga.

Neji let out a scream of frustration. "Stop moving!"

Unfortunately for the proud Hyuuga, that moment of frustration cost him the fight. Suddenly he fell to his knees, having lost feeling of all of his limbs. "W-what? How?"

A blonde materialized out of thin air in front of the Hyuuga. "Simple, Hyuuga-san. You've been under a genjutsu the moment you set your eyes on me."

Neji scoffed. "Impossible, my Byakugan would have noticed if it was Genjutsu."

Naruto shrugged. "In the field of Genjutsu there is one rule agreed upon by all practitioners of the art, Hyuuga-san. That rule being, _'Your Genjutsu can only be defeated by someone of greater skill than you at Genjutsu.'_

The blonde shot Neji 'the look'. "What many of you Hyuuga don't know, is that your eyes work like that. In a technical sense, your eyes can only break Genjutsu up to a certain level. Hyuuga are rarely talented at the art, because the Byakugan inhibits the ability to correctly perceive Genjutsu. Where you literally **see** genjutsu right down to the flow of chakra used, I can see it as it is... smell it... hear it... feel it... taste it... imagine it... and live it."

Naruto shrugged. "It is a difficult concept for one such as yourself to fully grasp, Hyuuga-san. For the sake of helping you understand it better; Picture your bloodline as a predetermined level of genjutsu, only you can't use genjutsu. My level of genjutsu is higher and greater than yours. You may see chakra, but you will never fully comprehend the 'feeling' and the 'senses' involved in my powerful genjutsu."

Neji looked lost. "But... Genjutsu does not affect one physically..."

Naruto nodded. "That is true, Hyuuga-san. However there have been legends of past genjutsu users, powerful enough to make their illusions a reality. I am not at that level yet, I'm afraid. What I did was hit you at several pressure points on your body to disable movement on your limbs for several minutes. In the field you would be dead right now. A second, is all a true ninja really needs."

The Hyuuga sighed, looking humbled. "I see... I've been defeated. Please leave me, I must reflect on this."

The blonde shrugged, and left the clearing. When Tenten shot him a questioning look, the blonde shook his head and mouthed 'I'll tell you later'.

Tenten nodded and took the blonde's hand at his side and left the clearing with him.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

The two walked down the streets of Konoha in no direction in particular. They had just left the forest, and in turn the training grounds.

The brunette ponytailed girl's thoughts revolved around what Gai had revealed to her and her teammates concerning the blonde.

"You didn't tell me you were an Elite Jounin, Naruto-kun." Tenten stated curiously.

The blonde walking next to Tenten rose an eyebrow. "You never asked." He replied amused.

The brown haired girl huffed, and shot the blonde a mock glare. "Is there anything else I don't know about you?"

Naruto scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well... Not anything I can think of at this moment... Though I recently found a new pastime that has certainly made my days more interesting."

Tenten rose an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued. "It doesn't involve pocky or ramen, right?" She asked with a sweat drop.

The blonde shook his head in the negative, eyes glimmering with humor.

"No? What it is then?"

"Just take a guess, Tenten-chan." The girl in question pouted. She didn't like guessing games. Her father did it frequently enough to annoy the hell out of her, after all.

"Fine... Watching movies?"

"Nope"

"Give me a hint then."

Naruto tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well... It may involve a certain Kunoichi I met the other day."

Tenten's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Now, she really wanted to know who the blonde was talking about. She felt a large degree of annoyance and just a bit of anger at whoever the girl was that spent time with the blonde. She blinked in surprise._ 'Wait a minute. Why do I even care if he spends his time with some other girl. We're just friends, right?.'_

"Is it someone I know?" She questioned sweetly, her eyes resisting the urge to twitch in annoyance.

The blonde nodded. "Yes, I'm pretty sure you've known her for quite a while."

Tenten frowned. She knew many Kunoichis. Either from missions, or doing annoying Chuunin paperwork. Her eyes narrowed. _'It better not be that slut Ami.'_

"Hmmm... What color is her hair?"

Naruto grinned at her curiosity. "She was a brunette, the last time I checked."

The ponytailed girl frowned again. _'It must be that slut! She's the only other brunette I know our age.'_

A saccharine sweet smile graced Tenten's face. "Is it... Notoka Ami?"

Naruto blinked surprised. "Um.. Tenten-chan?"

"Hai Naruto-kun?" She asked, eyebrow twitching irately.

"Whose Notoka Ami?" He asked sheepishly.

Tenten sweat dropped. "She's the only Kunoichi I know of that's a brunette. Are you sure I know that girl you're talking about?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow. "I'm certain you do. You do see her every day, after all."

Tenten scoffed. "Oh really? Where?"

The blonde grinned at her. "Of course. You do look at the mirror when you get up in the morning to brush your teeth, right?"

The brunette's eyes widened, and a cute blush adorned her face. "W-what? You m-mean, me?"

Naruto nodded with a small smile. "Yeah, you silly."

Tenten blushed under his gaze. "So this new pastime of yours..." she begun shyly.

The blonde smirked. "I enjoy spending my time with you, Tenten-chan."

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

Both teenagers looked in front of them and saw an ANBU had stopped them.

"Hai, that's me."

"Tsunade-sama has requested your presence in her office for a quick meeting. Good day."

'PUFF'

Naruto blinked. "Odd. Well, at least now I know where I'm headed. Would you like to join me, Tenten-chan?"

Tenten nodded. "Yeah I have some paperwork to finish up today anyway. I'll fill it out while you attend your meeting."

The blonde nodded and held Tenten's hand a bit more firmly. "Hold on."

"What do you-"

'PUFF'

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

"Naruto! You could have warned me!" Tenten growled at the blonde when she regained her bearings.

The blonde shrugged. "I did, Tenten-chan. I said, 'hold on'."

Tenten's eyebrow twitched irately. "That's not a warning!" She growled, and sent her fist flying towards the blonde's nose.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. With little effort, he caught the outstretched fist by the wrist two inches from his face.

"But it was a warning, Tenten-chan. 'Hold on' signifies that you should prepare yourself for something."

Tenten rolled her eyes. "That warning doesn't work on ladies Naruto-kun. Next time warn me properly." And to drive her point home, she flicked the blonde's nose with her fingers, where he held her wrist.

Naruto pouted, ignoring the ache from his throbbing nose. "Sorry, Tenten-chan. It wont happen again."

The girl in question grinned cheerily. "Good!" she chirped.

The blonde resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the girl, but failed, causing Tenten to playfully stick out her tongue at him in retaliation. "I'll meet up with you when I finish my paperwork Naruto-kun. Ja ne."

Naruto sighed, and turned in the direction leading to Tsunade's office. He had a meeting to attend.

XxX-Review my minions!-XxX

'Knock knock'

"Come in."

Naruto opened the door to Tsunade's office and entered, idly wondering why there were several other Jounins present.

Tsunade cleared her throat and got everyone's attention. "Now then, most of you know why you're here. As for those that don't and that are new to this, pay attention." Here she shot the blonde ex-ANBU a look.

"Every year, many students graduate from the ninja academy. And out of the many that graduate only a small fraction are truly ready to become gennin. Three of you here have applied for taking on a gennin team. As for the rest of you, you'll help us get rid of the cannon fodder that aren't fit to be gennin."

She leaned forward and brought her fingers together under her chin. "It's not commonly known, but two thirds of the students are marked to fail before they even know it. It's the job of those here, that didn't apply, to drive the message into them that they are not yet ready. You can do so in any way you see fit, as long as they know they fail and are not yet ready to become true gennin."

She picked up a file and started reading. "Alright, This folder has the names of the three new teams that will pass first, afterwards the rest of you can pick whatever team you'd like and go have fun failing them. Don't forget to memorize the time you're expected to be there and where it will be. It's all in the folder."

Three jounins stepped forward, read the file and left the office. The remainder quickly attacked the poor folder and started bickering over who'd get to fail whom. Several minutes later, once the last few had left, Tsunade smirked at the blonde that hadn't made a move towards the folder since he entered the office.

"As for you Naruto-kun. I've got a very special team I'd like you to fail for me."

Naruto nodded and stood up straighter, giving Tsunade his full attention. Missions were good. "The three wannabe's I want you to fail, are the children of several civilian council elders. While they aren't my enemies, they have been annoying me recently when they wanted to dig their noses into military business. I want you to drive home the message of what the shinobi world is really like to those children, so that their parents will hopefully stop their foolish attempts."

The blonde nodded, showing he fully understood. Only he didn't. The only words he really paid any mind to were, 'council elders', 'children', 'enemies', 'annoying' and 'stop their foolish attempts.'

"Hai Hokage-sama. Which team is it?"

Tsunade grinned foxily. "It's team 13. Fitting, don't you think?"

"By the way, this stack of folders contain details of all the previous tests and methods conducted on failed students. Feel free to read through it for some ideas. Oh, I'm calling for some tea, would you like some, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded and began paging through the folders, his acute eyes scanning through the lines of text with great focus. "I'd appreciate some, Hokage-sama."

An hour later

Tsunade yawned as she defeated another stack of paperwork. "You done with those yet, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde nodded. He had made many mental notes of how to approach his soon to be failed team. He stood up to leave. "By your leave, Hokage-sama?"

The blonde kage nodded pleasantly and watched the teenager leave, inwardly cackling and rubbing her hands together with glee.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Naruto slowly walked out of Tsunade's office and walked down the hall, into a large room that was filled with cubicle work spaces. Everywhere he looked, he saw chuunins old and young alike working on their own paperwork at their own cubicles.

He sensed Tenten's chakra in the middle of the room. When he approached her, he saw her working, furiously writing away and glaring at the stacks of paper on her desk. The blonde grinned and lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You shouldn't glare so much Tenten-chan. It's unbecoming of you."

Tenten grumbled something along the lines of, 'creator of paperwork needing to burn and die a horrible death.'

"You'd be doing the same if you had paperwork to do right now."

Naruto rolled his eyes, and settled his other hand on her other shoulder and rubbed her shoulders comfortingly. The book had mentioned a good back rub where appropriate would gain you 'browny points'. Whatever those were.

"With my previous rank I had enough paperwork to drive me insane, Tenten-chan. I've been promoted to Elite Jounin. Whether the amount of paperwork I do now, increases or decreases, has yet to be seen."

Tenten sighed contently as the blonde's fingers worked wonders on her tensed back. "Why did Tsunade-sama wish to see you, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto frowned slightly as he worked on a particularly tight knot. "She wants me to go test a gennin team. And pass or fail them depending on how they fare."

The brunette blinked, then bit her lip to keep a moan from escaping. The blonde seemed to be very skilled with his fingers for some reason. "Isn't it a bit early for you to be taking on a team?"

"Not really. Tsunade-sama wished for me to pass judgement on this team. Their parents are civilians, and they have no true understanding of the shinobi world. I am to correct that."

Tenten rose a curious eyebrow. "You mean you're going to fail them in a humiliating way then?"

Naruto's surprise showed when he stopped his ministrations on Tenten's back. He set back to work though, when she let out a small disappointed whimper. "What makes you think I'm going to fail them, Tenten-chan?"

The girl in question giggled. "My Otou-san told me that there are always teams that 'have' to be failed, because they aren't ready to be shinobi. I'm just glad I wasn't on such a team back in the academy."

The blonde grinned. "Indeed? You're correct though, Tenten-chan. Tsunade-sama has instructed me to deal with my team in such a way that they will wish they had never been exposed to the shinobi world. I have taken inspiration from Kakashi-sempai's old reports back when he failed many a team."

Tenten bit her pen, then filled out several more lines on her page. "Oh? Sounds like fun. I wish I could see it."

Naruto shrugged. "There are no rules against you coming. You're welcome to join me of course, though I would advise you to remain hidden from my soon to be failed charge's. How far are you with your paperwork by the way?"

The brunette pouted. "I'm on my last stacks from my last two missions. When do you meet up with those gennin?"

The blonde looked at a digital clock on a nearby wall. "I should have been there an hour ago. I'm sure they can stand to wait another hour or two. A good shinobi has patience, after all."

Tenten laughed aloud. "Sakura-chan's sensei, Kakashi-san was late by three hours on their first meeting. I almost feel sorry for those kids."

Naruto smirked. "Well then. Do take your time, Tenten-chan. I'll wait for you to finish up." he said leaning against a nearby wall.

The brunette pouted at Naruto. "Hey! Why did you stop that back rub?"

The blonde rolled his eyes, clearly amused. "If I didn't stop, you would get nowhere with your work. If you're still up to it, I'll give you another back rub later after my test. Provided I'm in the mood of course."

Tenten glared mockingly at the blonde before turning back to the demons in front of her.

"Fine." she grumbled, and proceeded to viciously attack the remainder of her paperwork.

XxX-Review my minions!-XxX

In the classroom of one Umino Iruka, Chuunin and ninja academy instructor, a scene of chaos could be seen. Three newly appointed gennin were bickering amongst themselves, their topic being their tardy sensei.

"Where the hell is that idiot!? He was supposed to be here two hours ago!" A dark haired boy yelled.

"The hell should I know, you idiot! We don't even know what kind of person he is!" A chubby brown haired boy shot back.

"Both of you idiots shut the hell up! I can't paint my nails if you SCREAM all the time!"

Both boys turned to glare at the only girl in the class. "Go to hell!" they shot back.

Outside the door of the class, Naruto turned to Tenten with a hopeless look, while she smirked at the blonde. With a wink, she mouthed the words, 'Have fun'. And after several hand seals, used a chuunin level genjutsu to mask her presence to hide from the gennin.

Naruto sighed, and opened the door to the classroom and got the attention of the trio inside. "Team 13?" he drawled in a bored tone of voice.

The girl nodded. "Yes, and you are?"

The blonde shrugged. "I'm supposed to be your sensei. I can't really say I'm looking forward to it. You kids look pathetic."

"Hey! Who the hell you calling weak!" "I'll kick your ass blondie!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You have ten minutes to meet me at training ground 49. You WILL do 50 push ups for every minute you're late. Get going." And for added effect, he leaked a microscopic amount of killing intent. He then appeared to vanish in a puff of smoke. The three kids looked at each other in different degree's of horror, before they bolted out of the room.

Several seconds later, a snort could be heard in the empty class room. "Ten minutes, Naruto-kun? They're gennin. It should take them about 15 to 30 minutes to get there. You certainly don't play around."

A blonde haired figured appeared out of thin air. "Tsunade-sama suggested I use any means I think necessary to break them. If doing between 50 to 1000 pushups won't at least make them begin to doubt their choice as shinobi, then the other things I have planned for them will."

Tenten smirked. "I'll give them 20 minutes to get there. At the mention of push ups they seemed to be quite motivated."

Naruto rose an eyebrow. "Only twenty? No, I'm quite sure it should take them a good 30 minutes."

The brunette grinned a foxy grin. "Oh, are you sure? Wanna put your money where your mouth is?"

The blonde rose an eyebrow, familiar with the phrase.

"Of course."

Tenten smirked. "If I'm right, you'll owe me that back rub you promised me, no questions asked."

The blonde nodded his agreement. "And if I'm right?"

The brunette rose an eyebrow. "It should only be fair that you receive the same in return if you were right. So... a back rub?"

The blonde shrugged. "Alright. I'll see you on training ground 13."

Both teenager's vanished from the classroom in puff's of smoke.

XxX-Review my minions!-XxX

_30 minutes later_

Three figures could be seen approaching training ground 13 from the horizon. Naruto turned to where he knew Tenten was hiding under genjutsu and smirked. "I do believe you owe me a back rub, Tenten-chan." "Yeah, yeah."

Naruto faced his students when they stopped in front of him to take a break. "You're late..."

He received three harsh glares for his comment. "How did you expect us to get here in 10 minutes!? Are you crazy?"

The blonde shrugged. "Any REAL gennin should have been able to get here in 10 minutes. Fifteen at most."

The ex-ANBU glared at the three children. "Alright, since you're twenty minutes late, and I said 50 pushups for each minute you're late..." He smirked when the three kids paled. "That's right!" He chirped, in a false cheery voice. "You brats get to do 1000 pushups for me!" And just as quickly as his cheery facade appeared, a sadistic facade took it's place. "Get started!" He barked.

The only girl in their group glared at the blonde. "Hey, that's not fair, how do you expect us to-"

She was interrupted by what she would describe as the most horrible feeling she had ever felt. It felt like her insides were being crushed by boulders, and she saw herself die in over a thousand different ways, each more brutal than the next. Her two teammates were also feeling it apparently, as they dropped to their knees with her, and emptied their stomachs.

And as quickly as the killing intent washed over them, it disappeared. The three children warily looked up and saw what looked like a pissed off sensei. Not a good sight. "Get started." He hissed coldly, eyes glinting with barely restrained fury.

The three new gennin's shared a look and hit the floor to begin their pushups.

_One hour later._

All three children lay on the ground with sore arms while groaning. It had been hell, but they had barely managed to complete their pushups in the time of an hour. Naruto had made sure to bark out harsh commands at the gennin while they did their pushups to keep them going, though unknown to them, that Naruto was only a shadow clone.

The real Naruto sat several meters away with Tenten, under both tree and illusion. It would seem that he had claimed his 'back rub' in that time, and after much coaxing on Tenten's part, he had given in and gave one to her as well. Naruto nodded at Tenten as he stood up and used the replacement technique with his shadow clone.

"Alright maggots! Front and center, now!"

When they had shakily gotten up and in a row in front of the blonde, he continued. "That was.. PATHETIC!" "Aaah!" They had fallen to the ground when Naruto had shouted at them.

"Any REAL gennin would have been able to do 1800 pushups in that hour you wasted and STILL look fresh! You look more and more pathetic by the second! It's a good thing you aren't gennin yet."

The three blink in unison, the annoying girl being the most vocal. "Hey, what do you mean we're not gennin, we've got our forehead protectors!"

The blonde smirked 'sadistically' at them. "Oh that? It's just for show. Until you pass the REAL test, you will remain academy students on the records. Now then, let's get the REAL test started, shall we?"

The three gaped incredulously at the blonde. "B-but we're exhausted, you can't do this to us!" The blonde sneered at the chubby boy that had spoken up. "Fool! In the field your enemy wont GIVE A DAMN! Will there be any more disagreements, or can we start this simple test?"

When they shook their heads in fear, the blonde nodded once, sharply. "Pay attention. These three bells you see on my belt? Yeah, they're your pass to becoming a gennin on paper. One for each of you. I'm going to wait for you in a different clearing. You have one hour, get started. NOW!"

The three quickly disappeared from the clearing like hounds from hell were chasing. "You're pretty scary when you want to be, Naruto-kun." The blonde rose an eyebrow at where he knew Tenten was. "I had a very good drill instructor when I reached ANBU. Let's just say, I agreed with some of his teachings, and still do."

Tenten adopted a playful grin. "So... When do you think they'll realise you dropped the bells on the ground here?"

Naruto returned the grin. "No idea, but I better go to some clearing near them and get this annoying test over with.

That said, both he, and Tenten under the guise of a genjutsu, went to a clearing near the doomed threesome.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

"There he is!" "I got him!" "He's mine!"

Naruto lazily stepped out of the path of their sloppily thrown weapons and let them waste as much gear as possible. When they realized the futility of attacking the blonde they tried approaching him for taijutsu each from a different angle. They nearly pissed themselves when he reached into his pockets with both hands. "Lesson of the shinobi, number one... Taijutsu. Since you're all so pathetic, I wont ever bother using my hands on you."

That certainly got a reaction out of them, specifically the hot-headed ones... meaning all of them. "Gwaaar!! Die!!" "I'll beat you to a pulp!" "Revenge!"

Naruto lazily blocked their attacks using his legs while remaining standing in one spot. Thirty minutes of pointlessly getting nowhere, they realized it was time for a change of tactic. The blonde took notice and remove his hands from his pockets. "Lesson of the shinobi, number two... Ninjutsu. You know what... You're not even worth my time, I'll use just one ninjutsu of E-rank level on you. I wont need anything more since you're so pathetic."

In response, they used the clone technique and spammed as many of themselves as possible and attacked in unison. Right before the first hit landed, the blonde flared his chakra and everyone around him was flung back by pure chakra alone. The girl glared at Naruto. "What the hell was that!? You said you'd only use an E-rank jutsu!"

Naruto cleaned his ear using his pinky, not really paying them any attention. "And I did. You learned it in your second year in the academy I believe. Flaring your chakra is considered an E-rank jutsu." The threesome gaped incredulously at the blonde. The amount of chakra necessary to push someone away with a flare was huge, at least kage level.

Naruto sighed. "Well then, I was going to give you the third lesson of shinobi, which happens to be genjutsu. But that would be pointless. You have five minutes left before you fail, and you're several kilometers away from the bells."

The chubby boy scoffed. "What do you mean? The bells are right there on your... belt? W-Where are they?!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "As I was saying... A REAL gennin, would have noticed it when I dropped the bells in that previous clearing we were in. Hell, I dropped them right in front of you before you took off... Idiots... Oh lookie, you have 2 minutes left. It was nice knowing you pathetic brats."

"Noo!!" "My bell!" "I've gotta hurry!"

The three quickly took off in the direction of the previous clearing.

Tenten materialized out of thin air when she dropped he genjutsu. "Aren't you concerned they might get the bells in two minutes time?"

The blonde shrugged. "Even if they do, those bells are just three cards under genjutsu telling them they failed horribly."

Tenten giggled. "You know, I actually feel kind of sorry for them. On some small microscopic level."

"Too late to do anything about it now. They failed before I went to pick them up at the academy, this test was just for show."

"Well, what's done is done I guess. So... what do you want to do now, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde in question rose an eyebrow. "I have... no idea. I was hoping you could save me the trouble and come up with something to occupy my time, Tenten-chan."

The brunette pouted. "I don't know either. I was going to blow the rest of my day training and maybe finish my paperwork earlier, but the latter is done and it's getting dark, so training is out."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Well... I wanted to consult Sai-kun's wisdom concerning something... of importance. Would you like to tag along?"

She nodded with a smile. "Anything's better than going home and listening to my Otou-san being perverted."

"Good. I think I sense his chakra east of here, lets go."

"Hai"

XxX-Review my minions!-XxX

Naruto landed in front of Sai after several minutes of roof hopping, Tenten right next to him. "Good evening, Sai-kun."

The art ninja nodded at the blonde and greeted him with his newly improved 'smile'-mk2. "Good evening, Naruto-kun, Tenten-san. Would you like to join us for a game of rolling?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow. "Okay, but only if I can consult you for your wisdom in private later."

Sai nodded happily. "Excellent! I look forward to 'rolling' with you, Naruto-kun."

"Baka!"

The blonde showed no visible reaction when the one he dubbed as 'Sai's harpee', hit Sai on his head. "It's called 'bowling'! Get the term right."

"Ah, I'm sorry Ino-chan. You were complaining about being too small a group so I invited Naruto-kun and Tenten-san to join us for the... 'bowling'. Did I do good?"

Ino blinked at the two new arrivals and grinned. In the back of her mind however, she was disturbed at having the urge to say: 'Sai is a good boy.'.

"Hello again, Naruto-san, Tenten-chan. I hope Sai didn't bother you too much. Are you sure you'd like to join us? Lee and Sakura are coming too?"

Tenten smiled at Ino. "Hello, Ino-chan. No he didn't bother us, and yes, we wouldn't mind joining you. Though, I have this hunch Naruto hasn't really played it yet." She laughed kindly at the blonde when he nodded sheepishly.

Ino shrugged. "That's alright, it's Sai's first time too. Small world, huh?"

That said, they all walked off in the direction of the local ten pin bowling alley. They met up with Lee and Sakura on the way there. Lee was nursing several wounds on his fingers that Sakura refused to heal, stating he 'should learn from his stupid mistakes'. Apparently they were paper cuts he got from playing with chakra hardened cards.

They eventually got to the bowling alley and booked themselves a lane. Naruto was up first.

The blonde stood in front of the other's holding a bowling ball. "So how does one play bowling?" he asked curiously.

Ino stood up and gave both Naruto and Sai a quick lecture on bowling. "Okay since these alley's are computerized you don't need to know the scoring rules. Just roll the ball in the alley, and hit as many pins as you can in one roll. If you get them all down in one roll, it's called a strike, meaning you don't roll a second time. If you only knock down some of the pins, you'll get a second roll. Try to avoid rolling the ball into the gutters, you look stupid if you do. That's about it, I think."

Sakura stood up indignantly. "Hey wait, you skipped out a lot of- mmppf-" Ino had quickly shut the pinkette up by slapping her hand over her mouth. "We don't need the details Sakura, we're here to have fun. Just drop it, kay?"

The pinkette glared at her blonde friend, but nodded with a sigh. Ino clapped her hands together. "Well then! With that out of the way... Naruto-san, you're up."

Naruto nodded and went to their alley. To the entertainment of those watching, he bent down and placed the ball on the ground, and rolled it towards the pins. He stood up, and nodded satisfied. That sure was a good roll if he did so say himself.

Ino of course didn't agree. "Baka! You're supposed to throw, roll it, not literally roll it! How stup-" "Oh, I got a strike it seems." the blonde interrupted. "-id... Huh?"

Those that were looking, gaped at the blonde's lane. He really did get a strike, as ridiculous as it was.

Naruto took his seat next to Tenten, whom shot him a grin. She couldn't really bring herself to feel annoyed at him for something like that. From what she had gotten to know of the blonde, he really WAS new to many things that other's would take for granted. To her, the blonde's actions seemed... cute, in a way.

They spent the rest of their night in relative peace, Naruto and Sai slowly learning how to properly play the game, while Lee slowly learned to limit his strength while rolling the ball after having broken several pins on contact.

All in all, it was a rather pleasant night. Naruto even managed to consult Sai for his 'wisdom' when they had went to get drinks for the other's.

"Sai-kun."

"Hai, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde frowned slightly. "Earlier today someone called me weak for allowing Tenten-chan to easily influence me."

"Ah? And how do you feel about that, Naruto-kun?" Sai said, trying out those 'psychology' techniques he read up some time ago. Apparently it was wise to get the troubled one to branch out their problem until you found a solution.

"Nothing really, he called her weak though. She let him say so without really defending herself."

"Yes? And how do you feel about that?"

Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Annoyed I guess. I mean, what right does he have to say something like that to his own comrade?"

"Is annoyance the only thing you felt, Naruto-kun? What did you feel for Tenten when this person insulted her?"

The blonde frowned. "I felt... protective of her. For what reason, I do not know. It's strange, really."

Sai's eyes shone with understanding. "I think I know what's happening Naruto-kun. I've read of this phenomenon in a book somewhere before. I believe the book said it's called attraction. You feel protective of her because you value her company, value Tenten-san herself, or perhaps something else. Much like a parent is attracted to the well being of their children and therefore feel protective of them, is it the same for your situation. Or at least I think it is..."

Naruto's eyes widened in understanding. "I see... Thank you for helping me clear this up Sai-kun. You're a valuable friend. My trust in you is well placed."

Sai grinned happily. His sempai had praised him! Perhaps he was on the road to becoming as strong as his sempai one day...

The rest of the night went relatively smoothly. And when they finished up, they had their fill of food at a nearby food stand, then headed to their respective homes.

Once again, Naruto found himself walking Tenten home. And if he was completely honest with himself, which he was, he would admit he didn't really mind. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

Eventually they reached Tenten's home. Naruto looked on amused when he noticed Tenten's signs of nervousness again. _'Hmm... That book said a good way to thank your friend for the evening is to... hug them, was it? A hug is an embrace right?'_

The blonde cut himself off his thoughts, when he closed the distance between himself and Tenten and gently gathered her into his arms.

Tenten had been wondering how she would bid the blonde a good night when she felt the blonde wrap his arms around her. She blushed when she felt he was hugging her, awkwardly and almost giggled when she realized this must have been the first time he gave anyone a hug.

With a small smile on her face, she gently wrapped her arms around the blonde's torso and pulled herself closer. She rested her head under his chin and buried her nose into his neck, and breathed in the blonde's scent from his neck. "When you hug a girl, you don't always need to rub her back Naruto-kun. Just relax your arms and hold her as comfortably as you can. It's not really technical, it's more of a gut instinct thing."

The blonde relaxed his arms at Tenten's silent instructions and held her smaller, though not by much, form to his. He found he enjoyed the hug. _'It feels warm. In a good way.'_

"Naruto-kun?" she murmured.

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for the wonderful day. We should do this again."

Naruto nodded, and sighed when he felt her nuzzle his neck. "It was my pleasure. And yes, we should."

"Aha! What do we have here!?"

Tenten froze as she heard the voice of her father opening the door to her home. She tried to separate from the blonde, but found he still held on firmly. "Good evening, Souzousha-san. I do believe I'm hugging your daughter."

The brunette girl resisted the urge to bang her head repeatedly into the blonde's chest. Was there a limit to how dense someone could possibly be?

"Ah, I can see that kid. We never properly exchanged names, you know? Always that damned code name of yours, eh?" Naruto gently let go of Tenten ending the hug.

"Ah, my apologies, Souzousha-san. It must have slipped my mind. My name is Uzumaki Naruto." The older brunette male nodded and clapped the blonde on his shoulder. "Excellent. Now Naruto... Did you treat my daughter well? Didn't let anything bad happen to her on your date, eh?" "OTOU-SAN!"

Both Souzousha and Naruto shot an amused grin at the exasperated looking Tenten. The blonde nodded. "Our evening was satisfactory, Souzousha-san. And no harm came to her. None that I know of."

Tenten gaped at the blonde. This was a far cry from how she expected her father to react to seeing the blonde and her hugging. She only ever had one boyfriend, and that was back in the academy. The poor kid still couldn't look her in the eye without running off screaming about 'pointy demons'.

"Good, good. Oh! I finished repairing your blade, as promised. I'll go get it, be right back."

He grinned lecherously at the two before turning to leave. "Don't do anything I wouldn't."

The brunette girl sighed. "Well... I certainly wasn't expecting that to happen." The blonde rose an eyebrow. "I'm sorry if I caused you any grief, Tenten-chan."

Tenten blinked, before gazing at the blonde with a smile. "Don't be. I had fun. That's all that matters. So, thank you." She said and hugged the blonde.

Naruto smiled when he felt that feeling of warmth again, and returned the hug readily. He would have to discuss the merits of 'hugging' with Sai-kun sometime it seemed.

"And here it is.. oh, can't keep your hands off each other I see?" The weapon smithy grinned perversely as he looked at the two teenagers.

Tenten gently let go of the blonde and turned to glare at her father. Naruto smiled at the older man and accepted his repaired blade. "Thank you very much, Souzousha-san. Just charge the amount necessary to my bank account, as usual."

The older man nodded. "Will do, kid. Well, it's getting late and I need's me beauty sleep. I'll see you on poker night, or any time in between. Ja ne." With that, the male brunette walked inside and headed to his room.

Tenten smiled at the blonde, and gave him a quick hug. "Good night Naruto-kun."

He returned the smile. "Good night, Tenten-chan. Sleep well."

In a puff of smoke the blonde disappeared off to where he lived.

XxX-Review my Minions!-XxX

Kukukukuku -cough cough- kukuku -cough- kuu.

Yeah. It's a crap chapter I know. -

Give me a day or two to sort out all the bugs and crap dialogue in it. Kay?

Hope you enjoyed it, despite it's suckiness.

Cya.

T.M.

P.s. Don't forget to review. -


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